Changes to freight plan annoy EJ&E neighbors

A proposal to scale back part of a freight train congestion-relief project caught criticism from a coalition opposing the Canadian National Railway's purchase of the EJ&E railroad.

CREATE, or the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency program, is a collaboration between railroads and federal, state and local governments to ease the bottlenecks that delay trains in the city. It involves constructing numerous grade separations and would cost more than $2 billion.

CREATE recently announced it intended to modify the plan by dropping a new route designed to get CN trains through the region faster. The change comes after CN confirmed it won't need that improvement because it is moving trains onto the EJ&E, which runs in a semicircle from Waukegan to Gary, Ind., avoiding Chicago.

Towns along the EJ&E fought the railroad merger saying it would cause noise, traffic and safety problems.

TRAC, a coalition of merger opponents, said Wednesday that CREATE was premature in its revisions to the project because the U.S. Surface Transportation Board's decision is being appealed in court and it could be reversed.