Gentes will fight railroad sale
Canadian National (CN) wants to make the EJ&E line into a train superhighway with at least 20 freight trains per day blocking traffic and making getting around impossible. For me, as a pharmaceutical representative, being able to get to appointments without delay is essential to my business. I'm sure lots of other people around here feel the same way.
Unfortunately for us, one of our Senate candidates, Dan Duffy, is taking campaign cash from the railroads. I heard about this at a meeting with Bill Gentes, his opponent in the race, and I did a little research.
According to board of election records, Dan Duffy has taken $2,500 in campaign cash from Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). BNSF's Web site says the company tried to merge with CN in 2000 and has had agreements to share track and operating facilities with CN in the Chicago area since at least 2006.
On BNSF's own Web site, here's what CN president and CEO Hunter Harrison had to say about CN's joint operations with BNSF: "These agreements are smart railroading: CN's track and rail infrastructure sharing agreements with BNSF Railway are creative means of improving network fluidity and increasing traffic density on our system."
Did you catch that last phrase: "increasing traffic density on our system?" And Dan Duffy thinks it's OK to take campaign contributions from these people. He thinks it's OK that we fight 20 trains a day.
Bill Gentes is the only state Senate candidate in our area who has pledged to fight against this acquisition, which will be disastrous for our communities.
Gale Cohen-DeMarco
Wauconda