WASHINGTON — In their latest bid to delay the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, four members of the Illinois congressional delegation have cited the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment as a reason the Surface Transportation Board should subject the merger to further review.
In a letter to STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman dated Thursday, Feb. 23, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, along with U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Delia Ramirez, argue the board should delay its decision “until it further reviews the increased transportation of hazardous materials that would result from the merger.”
The letter claims that “CP and KCS both have histories of train derailments causing hazardous material spills, and any increases in the amount of hazardous materials transported as a result of the proposed merger would put communities across the country at greater risk of a dangerous accident.” It cites a finding in the board’s final Environmental Impact Statement that estimates the merger would result in an increase in the amount of hazardous material transported on 141 of 178 rail segments on the combined rail system.
“We are concerned that this increase puts CP’s Central Corridor, which passes through Chicago, particularly at risk since the route transports intermodal containers carrying fertilizers, crude oil, and chemicals from the Port of Vancouver,” the letter reads. “… We are deeply concerned that the increased transport of unknown chemicals puts Illinoisan lives at dangers and risks the Chicago suburbs suffering similar devastation to that of East Palestine. Public and environmental safety must be a top priority in the STB’s review of the proposed CP-KCS merger.”
Earlier this month, the same four legislators asked the STB to delay its decision until it undertook a separate assessment of the merger on the Chicago area [see “Illinois legislators again ask STB to delay decision …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 20, 2023]. That letter, sent to the board Feb. 17, made no mention of the derailment or hazardous-material issue, even though it was sent two weeks after the accident in East Palestine.
Dick Durbin likes to tout the fact that members of his family worked for the New York Central Railroad in East St. Louis, IL. Evidently none of it was transferred in his DNA. He knows nothing about railroading . He has spent his entire career in politics and has yet to make a meaningful contribution to the state of the country.
Sen. Do-Nothing Dick is at it again. Chicago is the railroad capital of North America Dick. Dozens of Chicago suburban communities are exposed to freight trains carrying hazmat shipments EVERY DAY. The sad and stupid position advocated by Durbin and his flunky Tammy Duckworth would reduce hazmat volumes on the CPR lines but increase shipment volumes for the rest of us.
Bravo! Well said.
None of the four know a darn thing about railroading and have no business meddling in it. If they had their way, Illinois’s economy would be totally shut down. Nimbys have done enough to stop progress in this state. They claim they want to help improve the climate, yet they through road blocks in the way of the most pollution free transportation system we have.
Should be throw. not through. Sorry about the typo.
“…transports intermodal containers carrying…crude oil and chemicals…”?!?! You just can’t make this stuff up. Oh, that’s right. They just did. At the risk of sounding like a broken record from the previous Newswire item where I got into it with James Giblin, I wonder if any of these luminaries know who owns the territories Metra operates over and is responsible for keeping it in a state of good repair…and who gets to control those train movements and from where. Let the merger happen guys. It may well be for the good of the industry and the US economy. But first convince Oberman and his Board to approve it on condition that the train dispatching on the territories Metra owns is conveyed to where it belongs.
With all of the hazmat traffic diversions off UP and BNSF combined with CP’s much smaller footprint in Illinois one could argue that the risk level will go down for the state. Typical political scatological/wall adhesion factor exercise.
One of my favorite sayings: If you want an expert in rail or anything else for that matter, talk to a politician or news anchor???
CP already has a Chicago presence. All the merger will do is allow its freight to move straight through the metropolitan area, instead of it being interchanged with another railroad.
Mr. Shigley: How much of the traffic CP runs to/from the Chicago gateway is going to/from eastern Canada? Because whatever percentage isn’t is still going to have to “be interchanged with another railroad”.
In fact, some eastern Canada traffic does, as a practical matter, “interchange” with BRC and Norfolk Southern. CP “interchanges” with the BRC to get across town to NS CP509, and has trackage rights on the Chicago Line east to CP358, Butler, IN, just west of the IN/OH line. From there it’s trackage rights on NS’s ex-Wabash to somewhere in the Detroit area tangle of tracks to the CP. CP crews those trains from a crew base at Elkhart but it’s still for all intents and purposes a Chicago “interchange”.
“CP and KCS both have histories of train derailments causing hazardous material spills,”
That’s a laugh. They ALL do.
Politicians who know nothing about the Rail Industry!!!!
Still waiting for them to make a link of the CP[KC] merger and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This is life. Things will happen but we don’t stop things or crawl into a hole because of an accident or a disaster. When it does happen, we go back to the drawing board or the lab and work and resign things that it won’t happen again or make things safer. Over a hundred years ago when railroads were the new technology of its day, there were hundreds of accidents and fatalities and of course there were calls to ban or stop all railroad construction and expansion but those calls wee ignored. The designers, planners and inventors went back to work and kept improvingand designing better methods, construction and equipment. Railroads are still the safest and most cost effective way to move goods, merchandise and chemicals and hazardous materials. It just means we have to work on new methods and equipment to make transportation of these materials safer and step u more vigorous inspections and tighter controls. As for the argument about having trucks move hazardous materials, trucks have to share the road with other drivers especially drivers with cars who often drive recklessly and cause plenty of accidents and if you listen to traffi reports, how many times are there jackknifed trailers and overturned trucks” Besides many trucks are operated by independent and self employed drivers who could and are operating trucks with mechanical issues or bald tires or such and as mentioned before are sharing the roads with reckless drivers who turn the highways and roads into raceways . At least the railroad has its own right of way and nothing else to get in the way except of corse for the careless drivers who go over grade crossings thinking they can race or beat the train. Nothing in this lfe or world is 100percent foolproof or safe but do we stop living or get rid of everything ? No we work to make things safer and invent create new things and procedures
Plenty of air crashes and accidents over the years but did we stop flying, no we worked to make air travel safer and more reliable. So go the same with chemicals and hazardous materiald by rail.
Joseph C. Markfelder
Very well said Joseph, I could not have said it better.
Thanks Joseph for these well written thoughts.
You want dangerous, go out on any highway in America during a snowstorm. One fool can cause a pileup. One fool can and one fool does.
Excellent commentary, Joseph. Too bad such rational thinking is so thin among people in authority, particularly elected officials.
This stuff is going to move. Now whether that’s by rail or road doesn’t matter. Hazardous items are going to move. If you stop it moving by rail then it will move by road. I’d rather it move by rail than by hundreds of different trucks with different drivers. That’s just me.
Railroads are woefully underutilized in this country.
Pre-election posturing. What a turn off.
This proposal is insanity, Good Grief.
Some years ago the leftwing Santa Monica city council refused to renew an oil pipeline through the city (from a small oilfield up near Port Hueneme). So the oil company started using trucks to carry the oil through the city. After a few days the city council changed its mind.
Okay, then. Lets put these chemicals on trucks on the I-294 TriState Tollway.
Exactly Charles. I don’t think Roselle (above) would appreciate more trucks coming through town either, especially if they actually knee what went through their town everyday by truck let alone increase that by 10 times.