Comment EI-24555
Received or sent (printed as 7/11/2016)
The map at the following link http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/documents/10180/19427/Chicago-region-freight-trains perday_20120917_draft.pdf/0668884b-02c3-4b77-93ec-12f0dd232c05 from the Illinois Department of Transportation indicates freight train traffic in the Chicagoland region. The Illinois Department of Transportation shows there are only 5 rail lines that have over 60 cars per day on them. Two of the lines are not in the City of Chicago. The other 3 lines in the City of Chicago service existing rail yards. Please explain why then the rural areas of Illinois should be subjected to 110 trains per day, when that volume is sustainably higher than the rails in the rest of the area. It is not appropriate to basically force rural Illinois to bear the brunt of the rail traffic and have a disproportionally higher rail volume than the rest of the state. Please also note this map indicates there are 17 main rail lines feeding into the City of Chicago from rural Illinois. The STB needs to account for the existing rail traffic on these lines in these rural areas before approving more train traffic to disrupt life in the affected areas. Of these 17 lines 7 are owned by Union Pacific which has stated they will not use the Great Lakes basin line. 3 of the 17 lines are run by Canadian National, which already has the old Elgin, Joliet and Eastern line as its bypass of the city. With 10 of the 17 lines, or 59% of the lines, having no desire or need to use the new Great Lakes Basin line, please explain how this line is feasible as a bypass. Please also explain why this “bypass” is located where it is proposed to be. Their goal should be to prevent trains from reaching the 7 county Chicagoland region, not simply to stop trains from reaching the city of Chicago proper. The City of Chicago proper has a plan to ease rail congestion and the GLB plan interferes and potentially takes funding away from CREATE. CREATE is supported by the railroads, the City and the State of Illinois. CREATE and not GLB has the solutions needed for rail traffic in the City. Please explain why this bypass is not being built past the 7 county Chicagoland region, so that it will prevent trains from coming near the region, thus making it a true bypass. As it is, all this line does is move existing trains to a new area in the already crowded Chicagoland region. The link that follows from the State of Illinois Department of Transportation indicates the location of existing intermodal and freight yards in the Chicagoland region. http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/documents/10180/19427/Chicago-Area-Rail-Intermodal- Terminal-Map_20120430_final.pdf/478e0efb-029e-402a-8194-e3845d920e20 Please explain why the Great Lakes basin plan does not connect to these existing intermodal and freight yards. Their plan to build their own yard is ludicrous as the existing train companies have their own yards which they currently own. Why would they move their operations to the GLB yard? Any of these railroads could purchase a yard along one of their feeder lines into the city, if they wanted a new yard, why would they want to deal with paying GLB to Access their yard? Why would they use GLB people to repair their trains, they have their own trained crews? This rail year proposal from GLB is unneeded. Please also explain why it is 5 times larger than the largest rail yard in the world. The largest yard is actually owned by a railroad and it repairs their trains and is owned by them. Please explain in detail why any company with their own facilities already in place would choose to pay rent to use someone else’s facilities and employees. Please also explain why GLB does not service the existing rail yards, as right now the only explanation is that the existing railroads do not want or support the GLB proposal. Please also address the question of size, why does tis yard need to be so big? The link that follows from the State of Illinois Department of transportation indicates traffic volumes on Illinois roads. http://www.gettingaroundillinois.com/gai.htm?mt=aadt# Please explain why the Towns of Serena and Sheridan Illinois with over 2,600 vehicles using County Road 2 outside of Serena, Il and over 2,100 vehicles using county road 1, the road to the Sheridan Correctional Center a day, should be subjected to 110 trains per day slowing their traffic down, considering in Dolton Illinois, one of the worst towns for trains with 120 per day, has some roads with just 2,100 cars using them a day? Serena and Sheridan have huge traffic volumes, and towns outside of Chicago have less traffic crossing the tracks, and more alternative around the tracks. Please also explain why GLB is tooting this line as a Chicago bypass, when the vehicle traffic mainly affected by trains is not in Chicago proper, but the immediate suburbs of Chicago. The GLB line is not a bypass, it simple moves trains from suburbs attached directly to the City of Chicago and pushes them onto a new area. This line needs to be denied as the plan does not serve as a bypass, a bypass takes trains out of an area, this plan does not do this.
Submitted by: Dennis Scheppler · Mount Prospect, IL
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.
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