Private investors eye rail line to ease Chicago congestion

MUNSTER, Ind. (AP) - A developer says its proposal for an $8 billion, 278-mile rail line from Indiana to Wisconsin would greatly relieve Chicago-area freight congestion.

The rail line could handle 110 trains a day and would be the largest railroad project in the U.S. since 1911, according to Great Lakes Basin Transportation.

Great Lakes president Jim Wilson tells The (Munster) Times (http://bit.ly/1UBwZJ2 ) that Chicago-area freight traffic could increase by 50 percent in the next four decades.

Officials say it takes a train three days to get from Los Angeles to Chicago - and then another three days to get through packed Windy City terminals. Wilson says the tracks could save trains passing through Chicago as much as 24 hours each way, improving the shipping of frozen foods or produce. As many as 25 percent of the trains entering Chicago are just passing through.

"It certainly goes against the grain of incremental improvements at low cost," said Joseph Schwieterman, director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University. "But it could save shippers a lot of money."

A project like this is overdue, Schwieterman said. While railroads like to own the rails they travel, demand for a Chicago bypass is so great they would likely use the proposed line, he said.

Wilson says existing Chicago rail lines cannot be expanded. Great Lakes will present its plan to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board this month. Permits alone could cost up to $50 million and construction is at least two years away. Land acquisition could be difficult and time-consuming.

The plan would be to buy enough land for six main tracks to run from LaPorte, through Porter and Lake counties, into the Illinois counties of Kankakee, Grundy, LaSalle, Lee, Ogle, around Rockford and on to Rock County in Wisconsin.

The Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission won't play a role in development because the project won't rely on federal funding. But executive director Ty Warner says the commission will watch its progress closely.

"We have to deal with freight congestion in one way or another, and this is one solution," Warner said.

___

Online: http://www.greatlakesbasin.net/