Rail chief says takeover impact overstated

Any downside of Canadian National's proposed buyout of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern rail line has been overstated, the firm says, asserting the move would benefit the region overall.

And critics should wait for results of the environmental study before demanding train-crossing upgrades, CN President and CEO E. Hunter Harrison said in a statement.

He said diverting freight traffic to the EJ&E line could actually mean fewer road-level crossings overall and a better environmental impact on the Chicago region.

Karen Phillips, a CN vice president, said people should take a "broad look" at the impact on the region, not just on individual towns.

CN proposes a $300 million acquisition of the EJ&E, which runs in an arc from Waukegan to Gary, Ind. The line would become a bypass route for CN freight trains.

Currently, they must pass through more than 150 road crossings in Chicago and suburbs like Buffalo Grove, Carol Stream, Des Plaines, Elmhurst, Glendale Heights, Lincolnshire, Mount Prospect and Vernon Hills.

That number would drop to about 100 if the trains used the EJ&E lines, CN said.

Trains would increase in towns along the EJ&E by an estimated 15 to 24 per day. But CN asserts their impact has been vastly overstated.

Phillips said a CN-commissioned study determined that based on 10,000-foot-long trains traveling at 40 mph, the average delay at each crossing would increase by about 40 seconds, as opposed to the minutes-long increases critics assert.

But EJ&E towns insist the impact would be devastating.

"If anything, they have been understating the reality of the issue," North Barrington Mayor Bruce Sauer said. "It will substantially undermine traffic flow in this community."

Barrington Mayor Karen Darch said the CN's figures don't account for any future rail growth in the region.

"They obviously aren't looking at projection trends," she said.

Phillips said CN's study showed crossing delays would be reduced in towns now getting its freight traffic by a total of 174 hours per day or 63,520 hours per year.

That benefit might only be temporary, Darch said, since she believes the company will eventually sell its existing lines to another rail operator.

Phillips said she doesn't believe that will happen since other freight firms don't have the same need to bring trains through this region.

Leaders in Mount Prospect, for one, are cautious about supporting CN's claims that it's among the towns that would see less freight traffic.

"That is why we have been so judicious in (researching the sale's impact)," Mayor Irvana Wilks said. "There are no guarantees in any of this."

Buffalo Grove Trustee Jeff Berman said on its surface, the sale would appear to benefit his community.

The prospect of fewer trains and of improving the Metra line if freight traffic goes away are appealing, he said. He added the village has survived this long with CN trains coming through town and thinks others would be fine, too.

Freight trains aren't "the inherent evil they have been portrayed as," he said.

Monday, several Illinois congressmen sent a letter opposing the sale to the Surface Transportation Board, citing concerns of increased traffic congestion and emergency vehicle delays.