Comment EI-22169
Received or sent (printed as 4/20/2016)
Having attended the STB meeting in Valparaiso, I have certainly not changed my opinion of the proposed railroad. If anything, I am even more against it than before. I am terrified of the reports of leaks, accidents, crashes and explosions associated with freight trains. I guess it's something you don't really think about until it is coming so close to you. The concern with the DOT 111 cars is on-going and horrifying. Cutting Porter County in half for the benefit of a rail line is not justifiable. This railroad will cut farms in half, farms that have been in families for generations. It will alter agricultural and bus traffic, making each so much more fraught with danger. In an agricultural area, we are accustomed to farm traffic during peak seasons. I have heard farmer after farmer saying how it will destroy some of the best farmland in the country. Another issue is with the funding of the GLB line. Mr Patton states that it is privately funded. However, according to what I have read, it is railroad loans that will be paying for the bulk of this project. In my mind, that means taxpayer dollars are funding railroad loans to allow GLB to use eminent domain against the very tax-payers that will suffer the most from this railroad. It is hard to see any justice in this. I will continue to read and bone up on all aspects of this railroad as things are progressing. Thank you very much.
Submitted by: Patricia Troller · Valparaiso, Indiana
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-35952/comment/EI-22169 · back to the docket sheet