CN purchase will benefit only CN

As a 20-year veteran of the DuPage County Board, I have watched this Chicago-area issue with interest and have tried to look at the big picture and long term and not be provincial on the matter.

After much research I finally found the answer to my major question: What percentage of the Chicago area freight traffic is handled by Canadian National Railroad? Two sources tell me that the percentage of CN freight traffic is less than 10 percent. That is not a precise number and could be a little as 5 percent.

Let's assume it is as high as 9 percent, and over time could double or triple. CN freight load at 9 percent is a very small percentage of total freight traffic in the Chicago area. CN may gain greatly by this change to the EJ&E, but I don't see how our metropolitan area benefits.

On top of that, I saw data that showed if CN succeeds in this purchase, from 600 to 1,000 trucks would be able to come off area streets. I would estimate that 1,000 trucks represent less than 0.5 percent of total trucks.

It seems to me that the only real beneficiary of a CN purchase of EJ&E is CN. Such a purchase transfers traffic from one area to another at great cost to the new area in quality of life and safety, and only reduces truck traffic from our areas roads by a tiny fraction. How can the U.S. Railroad Board even consider approving this drastic plan?

Robert Schroeder

Naperville