Comment EI-25117
Received or sent (printed as 7/16/2016)
Lets revue: First Mr. Patton plans, behind closed doors and secretly, for 7 years to build a railroad. Then he gets permission to go ahead with this plan, altho he does not show any positive route, will not list any backers and cannot prove a need for the railroad. Then he announces it publicly and only gives the public 2 months to comment instead of the customary 6 months. He promises free electricity to affected land owners, which he will not define who they are. He tells farmers they can ship their grain on his railroad, which farmers will not and can not afford to do and the railroad will say it is too much of a hardship when done. He says it will create jobs, maybe it will in the beginning, for a few union railroad worker from out of the area, none for the local contractors, and after the project is done there will be no jobs from a train going 70 miles per hour through the county. He wants to build a 15000 acre rail yard for a 278 mile railroad, the largest railroad in the world has a rail yard of only 2500 acres, why does he need a rail yard this big for only 278 miles of track? Is there an ulterior motive behind this large of tract of land? When asked about it in Morris he said they told me to go big, next question" end of discussion, who are "they" and why wont he say who they are? He wants an additional 50 feet of right of way for use by utility companies, pipelines or fiber optic lines, which the STB has no authority over. He has nothing in his plan to take care of covering the cost to every community in the affected area of emergency services involving train wrecks, which will surely happen with 110 trains a day traveling at 70 miles per hour, hazardous waste spills into our rivers streams creeks ditches and our aquifer or the extra miles our school busses and farmers will have to take to perform their daily tasks. The 110 trains a day changes to maybe 10 or 12 one day and 110 the next time he is asked about it, I can understand a dicrepency of 10 or 15 trains a day but 100 trains difference? He started out at 6 billion dollars and that went up to 8 billion dollars to build this railroad, does he not have a better grasp on what it will cost? He said he will be up starting this project in 2018, has he no idea how long it takes to get the land bought, zoning changes to deal with, the environment impact studies,the safety studies, and the mountains of paper work to be done before he even turns over the first shovel of dirt? He says he will pay $20,000 per acre for the land and will use eminent domain to do so, the law says you cannot pay more than the land is worth under eminent domain. He says it will be a quiet train, the law designates the use of whistles and bells at crossings, not Mr. Patton. C.R.E.A.T.E. in the Chicago area is already up and running as planned to shorten time through the area and has the backing in place and is well funded and is up front in there actions. Mr. Patton has stated that he may use federal funds to build this project if he needs to!!! HE WANTS TO USE OUR MONEY TO BUILD SOMETHING WE DO NOT NEED OR WANT, JUST TO LINE THE POCKETS OF HIS INVERSTORS AND HIMSELF AT OUR EXPENCE!!!!! JUST SAY NO!!! JUST SAY NO!!! JUST SAY NO!!! Ken Daggett"
Submitted by: Ken Daggett
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-25117 · back to the docket sheet