Comment EI-24801
Received or sent (printed as 7/13/2016)
Part 1 of 3. The Canadian National Railroad purchased the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern line for 300 million dollars. Warren Buffet purchased BNSF for 44 billion dollars. Given the size of BNSF, that comes to Warren Buffet paying approximately $1,260,000 per mile of track, including trains and cars. In Southern Illinois we have two small railways, the Toledo, Peoria, and Western Railway (TPW) and the Keokuk Junction Railway (KJR). The Keokuk Junction Railway (KJR) runs from Keokuk Iowa, across the Mississippi River to Peoria, Illinois. Their line is 126 miles long. Their line runs through very rural Southern Illinois. The largest town they go through is Macomb, population 19,265, and of course near Peoria, population 115,828. This line has connection agreements with BNSF, Union Pacific, Canadian National, Norfolk Southern and the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway. Given the price paid for BNSF, this line would be valued at 158.8 million dollars. The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway (TPW) runs from Peoria, Illinois to Logansport, Indiana, crossing the Illinois River. Their line is 247 miles long and also runs through very rural Southern Illinois. The largest town besides Peoria it travels through is Watseka, IL with a population of 5,100 people. This line has connection agreements with BNSF, Canadian National, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Keokuk Junction Railway. Given the price paid for BNSF, this line would be valued at 311.2 million dollars. Great Lakes Basin Transportation Company (GLB) claims they have 8 billion dollars to construct a rail bypass of Chicago. GLB plans to run their line through the populated far suburbs of Chicago. The GLB proposal fails to account for the fact the Chicagoland Region has expanded to include the entire Northern area of Illinois East of Route 39 and extends as far North as Rockford, IL. The areas they want to build in are rapidly growing as Chicagoland continues to expand. Placing a line in this area only temporarily moves the congestion to a new area of Chicagoland. Some examples of cities affected by the GLB line and their population are: Rockford, IL population of 149,123, Kankakee, IL population of 26,860, Rochelle Illinois population of 9,424, Sheridan, IL population 2411 (and an additional 2,000 residents of the Sheridan Correctional Facility) and Seneca, IL population 2,371. These are not insignificant populations and are substantially larger than those in rural Southern Illinois where the KJR and TPW lines operate. GLB needs to explore purchasing the KJR and TPW lines, these lines run in an almost straight line east to west across truly rural Southern Illinois, and not the far suburban Chicagoland areas. These lines also currently connect to and have usage agreements with 5 of the 6 class one railroads, which are the intended clients of GLB. GLB, based on the selling price of BNSF, could purchase these lines for under 500 million dollars. This leaves GLB 7.5 billion dollars to upgrade these lines to be the premier rail lines in the nation. It is important to note GLB estimates they need to purchase 21,500 acres of land at $20,000 per acre. The land acquisition costs would be 450 million dollars. For 50 million more they could purchase two existing in service rail lines with existing non- court challengeable easements in place. Fifty million dollars is a small additional price to pay, given the destruction the proposed GLB line would create on the environment. This line would upgrade existing tracks and expand rail capacity in areas that have already been harmed by having a rail line built on them. The KJR and TPW lines also have existing bridges over rivers and streams. No new bridge locations across the Illinois River, or any river, would be needed, GLB simply needs to improve the existing bridges. This applies to the rest of the water crossing along this route; the infrastructure is already in place. Field tile drainage lines, phone lines, electric lines and pipelines have already been re-routed along this line. The environmental impacts of GLB purchasing and expanding the KJR and TPW lines are meniscal compared to the environmental destruction of fields, forests, wetlands and waterways that a new rail line would cause. GLB needs to utilize and purchase existing rail lines to accomplish their only stated goal of providing a bypass for Chicago freight traffic.
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.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-35952/comment/EI-24801 · back to the docket sheet