Comment EI-25086
Received or sent (printed as 7/15/2016)
I am writing in opposition to the Great Lakes Basin Railroad project. Thank-you for the opportunity to comment. My opposition includes the following points: 1 - Major railroads have spoken out against it as unnecessary and as conflicting with other plans already in place 2 - The economics of the proposed railroad are (in my opinion) suspect, and are being marketed by someone with little railroad background, hence (in my opinion) with substantial danger that if started it will be left for the public to bail out when the investors finally find it impractical and ill-advised. 3 - While NOT (in my opinion) being likely to deliver benefits to anyone (even the investors) it will CERTAINLY be disastrous for many thousands of entities currently in it's proposed path: farm families and university research centers whose lands will be rendered unusable and forfeit, residents whose towns are cut off, children whose schools or homes will be adjacent to the (dangerous) railroad path, wet-lands and watersheds which risk either be over-flooded or drained by the in-advised route -- rendering some of them permanently in the state that some of the area was a few years when a hurricane came through. 4 - Arguably what the railroads needs is better access TO Chicago (not bypassing Chicago) 5 - There are reasonable alternatives for any shipments bypassing Chicago such as improvement of existing routes, use of the great lakes themselves for shipping, rehabilitation of many abandoned rail lines, etc. 6 - It is a vestige of an earlier failed project (Illiana expressway and railway) that was soundly rejected some years ago for similar reasons as those discussed here (impact on public finances, public opposition, ill advised economics) Thank-you for the diligence you are giving to reviewing the GLBR proposal and I hope that after your careful research you will reject it based on the expected substantially negative economic and environmental and public impacts.
Submitted by: Phillips Hamilton · Far Horizons · hebron, in
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-25086 · back to the docket sheet