Comment EI-24706
Received or sent (printed as 7/12/2016)
I am and have been a resident and citizen in NW Indiana, Lake and Porter Counties, my entire 57 years. My grandparents and parents are all from East Chicago, Indiana, a well-known city to the STB I am certain since rail lines and rail yards permeate the landscape like arteries transporting blood throughout the body. I thoroughly understand that they are vital to the area for transportation of goods and services and have been a part of the city since even before my family settled there. My grandparents and mother lived mere yards from a rail yard, and during my first year of marriage, I brought home my first born to that same house where the trains became a familiar part of our existence, too. My oldest son is actually a third generation rail employee so the railroad has been financially responsible for my family's economic success and unfortunately occasional uncertainties in many ways. I have always lived within train horn distance" for as long as I remember from within yards of rail tracks to currently owning a home a mile away from tracks. I had to cross the rail tracks twice daily in my commute to high school and have had to sit for passing trains while going to work or simply the grocery store for more times than most people can imagine. I, sincerely, can say on a personal level that the railroad industry has been a vital and important part of my life and has therefore shaped my opinions about the Great Lakes Rail Basin project. I will however leave emotions out of these comments the best I can, and turn to facts. As mentioned, my son is an engineer for the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad and actually operates those trains that end up in the Chicago area rail yards. I have had in-depth conversations with him on several occasions to obtain not only facts, but his opinions about this alleged need for the rail transportation industry that Mr Patton has sought relief for. While he admits that there is congestion, he states that the majority of the problem lies in red tape, communication errors and typical business delays rather than a lack of rail space or a bypass around the Chicagoland area. He saw no current need for the proposed route at all and couldn't see railroads using it at this time. He stated that if projected growth and use of rail transportation did occur over the next twenty years as Mr Patton and others are predicting, then an extended or alternate type of route might be necessary but as he stated, "there are enough alternative rail routes currently in existence, currently in place or unused or improperly used, and many rails that have been removed in past years for various reasons". I spoke with my son regarding environmental impacts of trains since we are both passionate about this issue. He explained to me immediately that trains do cause sparks along the rails on occasion, and proceeded to tell me of a somewhat recent incident in the suburbs of Chicago where a spark ignited a fire in a protected butterfly prarie which turned into quite an ordeal, as you might be aware. Trains also contribute to air and noise pollution on an on-going basis, and while humans can obviously choose where they live and how they live, the rest of the living creatures and plants don't really have that option. Other concerns that I would have are with regards to safety. I sat waiting for a train to pass this morning while two blocks away from my daughter's home to babysit my granddaughter. I watched tanker car after tanker car pass by with highly flammable chemicals and liquids. My mind quickly raced back to earlier conversations I had with my son regarding rail safety, and terrorism. Ever notice how much graffiti you see on tank cars? As my son would say, it takes them longer to paint those graphics than it would take someone to absolutely shut down a rail yard, track system, or the entire rail industry. The rail system is vulnerable because it can't be policed or monitored. This may be an extreme hypothetical event for conspiracy theorists in most people's minds, but how are you going to reassure with 100% certainty that there will be no accidents, no catastrophic spills into farmlands, and even worse, contamination of wells with vital drinking water for both humans and animals. In the 1980's, I took a Public Affairs class at a local college. Our entire semester was built around discussion and potential solutions for problems concerning the public in Lake County, Indiana. Our number one issue at that time was the railroad's impact on automobile traffic and basically, the constant blocking of rail crossings, particularly in Hammond, Indiana. Discussion centered around the facts that population and industry growth far outpaced the railroad's ability to adapt to the change. This led to not only daily commuter nightmares, but also safety issues as emergency vehicles were often redirected around blocked crossing gates. Now in cities, you are offered sometimes many other viable options for travel, miles of roads and cross streets which only take you minutes out of your way and solutions to these concerns in Hammond were addressed. A concern I would raise is the proposed rail line is not cutting through a city or even populated areas where you would have many options to divert traffic, especially emergency vehicles. In some areas, I would expect you might have to travel miles out of the way in order to get to the same destination, wasting precious minutes in the process. Will the railroad be proactive in providing alternative routes in these situations? One might argue that there are rules in place that prevent blocked crossings for longer than ten minutes, but as an example to the ridiculousness of that statement,contact the Dyer, Indiana police department and ask how many phone calls they have received in the past year regarding the blocked crossing gates on 81st Avenue. Besides that point, if I had a medical emergency, I would think that an extra ten minutes would be uncalled for anyway. A would expect that a thorough study of traffic flow and emergency routes would be conducted in a situation as important as this. Another concern I will raise is the maintenance of the rail crossings. The NW Indiana region is notorious for brutal, lake effect snowstorms and a freeze/thaw cycle each Spring that wreaks havoc on our roads and rail crossings, and this should obviously be taken into account for many reasons, especially with regards to maintenance costs and closed crossings during repairs. I realize that this is the environmental impact portion of the study, but I would also debate Mr. Patton's suggestion that this would be an economic plus for the farmers and towns that this would affect. I only see farms, some that have been in families for generations, unusable or diminished in capacity. I see decreased property values in areas where the rail line will cross and people leaving towns where they had hoped to raise their children in quiet, rural surroundings. I see more crossing gates and the potential headaches that come with them. Money doesn't fall off trains as they pass any more than it grows on trees. In conclusion, I would like to voice my opposition to the proposed Great Lakes Basin Rail project and propose that rail lines that are already established be looked at as an alternate solution to projected and not yet realized growth in the Chicagoland rail transportation industry. We must be proactive, yes, but it is also important to take into account our past experiences in order to arrive at the most logical solution, if one is indeed warranted. As my Dad likes to say, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. You only end up with more problems in the end."
Submitted by: Karen Nelson
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-24706 · back to the docket sheet