Des Plaines mayor welcomes merger, but sympathizes with opponents

Tony Arredia may be the mayor, but just like all other Des Plaines residents, he has to live with about 240 trains per day traversing the city on 33 different grade crossings, all blocking traffic and delaying emergency vehicles.

He's pleased with the Christmas Eve ruling from the Surface Transportation Board that allows the Canadian National and EJ&E merger to go ahead.

The $300 million purchase will give CN additional trackage to reroute some freight trains from the crowded city and inner suburban rails to lines 20-30 miles west.

"Nobody could fault Des Plaines for being in favor of a deal that would cut our train traffic through town by 19 trains a day," Arredia said.

Still, the mayor knows that his benefit is someone else's problem. Specifically, the EJ&E line that will take CN traffic runs in a ring from Waukegan, through Mundelein, Barrington, Bartlett, Naperville and Joliet, among other towns.

"But we are cautious about our support," he added. "It is a double-edged sword."

Des Plaines is expected to be one of the main beneficiaries of the merger.

"It (will) provide some relief to our residents," Arredia said.

"Between 7:30 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 5:30 p.m. in this town it can take up to 15 minutes to get through a crossing - even though the railroad has made a big effort in recent years to ease their traffic during the rush hours."

CN is only one of several railroads that run through Des Plaines.

Arredia said he understands why Canadian National finds the EJ&E an attractive property to buy. Freight is getting bottlenecked in the city and inner suburbs, causing delays.

But Arredia is concerned that rail officials are predicting a 30 percent increase in freight traffic over the next five to 10 years. If that's true, Des Plaines may still see even more congestion than now.

"When they say that we will see 19 fewer trains per day, does that mean we will only see 41 additional trains per day instead of 60?" he wondered.