Congressman, local mayors launch effort to support EJ&E takeover

Believing the benefits outweigh the negatives, a new suburban coalition fronted by Congressman Dan Lipinski was launched Thursday in support of the controversial proposal by Canadian National to buy the EJ&E railroad.

Lipinski, from Western Springs, was joined by Des Plaines Mayor Tony Arredia, Buffalo Grove Village President Elliott Hartstein, acting Wheeling Village President Patrick Horcher and officials from a number of near west suburbs and the city of Chicago at a news conference in North Riverside Thursday to announce the creation of the Solutions To Area Rail Traffic, or START, organization.

CN wants to buy the EJ&E for $300 million and use the line, which runs in an arc around the Chicago region, to reroute freight traffic from lines in Chicago and inner suburbs.

Lipinski said he supports the deal, believing it will benefit the region as a whole.

"The proposed purchase will help improve the quality of life in more than 60 communities," he said. "The CN proposal is a step in the right direction."

Opponents of the deal, including a number of Northwest suburbs like Barrington, Hoffman Estates and Bartlett, have argued the additional 15-24 trains a day CN would run through their towns would cause enormous traffic, safety and environmental problems.

North Riverside Mayor Richard Scheck said the issue of trying to solve freight train congestion in the region should be shared by everyone.

"We are looking for the common good of the entire Chicagoland area and suburban area," Scheck said. "This is about neighbors helping neighbors and sharing the impact."

Scheck said the group was formed to give a "unifying" voice to those who support the deal. They said they will encourage their local residents to voice their opinions on the deal to the Surface Transportation Board during its current collection of public opinions.

If the deal goes through, Buffalo Grove stands to see a reduction of more than 15 trains a day.

Buffalo Grove's Hartstein said reducing the number of trains in his town will have a positive impact on Metra service, because freeing up congestion on the CN line will allow Metra trains to move more freely from the Northern suburbs to the city.

"Hopefully, that will create a situation where more people get off the roads and use public transportation," Hartstein said.

With 140 trains coming through Des Plaines each day, Arredia said he doesn't think some towns taking on additional 20 is too much to ask.

"I don't think it's a big bite for them to bite off," Arredia said. "We would gladly trade places with them."

Barrington Village President Karen Darch, also a co-chairman of the opposition group The Regional Answer to Canadian National, said before these communities think they really will be a "winner" if the deal goes through they should get assurances from CN that additional freight trains will not be put back on that line a few years down the road.

"There are no guarantees to these communities that the traffic they are losing in the short term will stay off (the current CN line)," Darch said.

Lipinski, the only local congressman on the powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees the transportation board, joins fellow area congressmen Mark Kirk of Highland Park and Jan Schakowsky of Evanston in supporting the deal.

While the three have all endorsed the transaction, U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Barack Obama, along with U.S. representatives Melissa Bean of Barrington, Judy Biggert of Hinsdale, Bill Foster of Geneva, Don Manzullo of Ogle County and Peter Roskam of Wheaton, as well as Rep. Peter Visclosky of northwest Indiana, have all publicly opposed the transaction.

Lipinski said he doesn't resent his fellow lawmakers from taking an opposite position and said he is not trying to dissuade them, or officials in local communities, for fighting for the deal to be rejected.

"They are standing up for what they believe is right and I am here standing for what I think is the right thing," Lipinski said.

In supporting the deal, Lipinski said he thinks CN should be required to provide a "reasonable" amount of mitigation for local communities taking on additional trains. He said it is up to the transportation board, which has final say on the deal, to determine what that reasonable amount is.

CN has offered to pay about $40 million toward offsetting the impact of increased freight trains in some towns, a sum opponents call insufficient.

Also on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., from Chicago, said he supports the deal only if the mitigation in his South Side communities is fully funded by CN.

"I strongly believe the railroad and/or the STB must absorb the costs of these four grade separations and emergency response routes because the local communities simply cannot afford it - nor should they be required to," Jackson wrote in a letter this month to the board.

Last month, the board released a draft of its environmental impact study. The final study is expected to be released sometime between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31. A final decision on the deal would then follow shortly after that.