WASHINGTON — A coalition of Chicago suburbs says it would cost between $5.5 billion and $9.5 billion to mitigate the impact of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger on their communities.
That’s more than the entire price tag of the CREATE program, which aims to spend $4.6 billion on 70 rail improvement projects across the Chicago area.
The Coalition to Stop CPKC on Monday urged federal regulators to reject the proposed merger. “The Board cannot approve the subject transaction as proposed because the newly merged CPKC would nearly triple the current level of freight rail trains on the Elgin Subdivision in three years – while also increasing the length of its trains – plans that would cause immeasurable, collective harm to all the Coalition member communities,” according to the communities’ filing with the Surface Transportation Board.
The costs to mitigate the harms caused by the merger far outweigh the benefits of the combination, the communities argue. And any approval of the merger should be conditioned on Canadian Pacific Kansas City modifying its operating plan to eliminate additional freight traffic from operating over the west end of the Elgin Subdivision, they told the board.
The group includes Bartlett, Bensenville, Elgin, Itasca, Hanover Park, Roselle, Wood Dale, and Schaumburg, Ill., all towns along the Metra Milwaukee District West Line between Chicago and Elgin. Metra owns the trackage, which is dispatched by CP.
The total population of the communities is about 300,000.
CP has projected that freight traffic on the Elgin Subdivision west of Bensenville Yard would rise to 11 trains per day, up from three, three years after the merger. The double-track route carries 38 Metra commuter trains per weekday, down from 60 prior to the pandemic.
But the communities claim that CP’s projections underestimate the potential rise in traffic over the Elgin Subdivision and the neighboring Chicago Subdivision. CP estimates Chicago Sub traffic would also increase from three to 11 per day.
The coalition says mitigation measures should include:
— Construction of train stations, related facilities, and track upgrades in Elgin at a cost of $5 billion to $8.9 billion.
— Nine grade-separated crossings in Bensenville, Itasca, Wood Dale, and Barlett at a cost of $315 million.
— Construction of a major state highway interchange in Bensenville for $125 million.
— Safety upgrades at 20 grade crossings.
— Dozens of measures to mitigate increases in vibration, noise, and potential damage to underground utilities.
Canadian Pacific, in a statement to Trains News Wire, said it is reviewing the communities’ filing, but believes “the filing contains factual errors and clearly mischaracterizes the train traffic on a railroad corridor that as recently as 2007 was handling about 64 freight and commuter trains a day, and today has about 41. We are committed to continuing our discussions with communities about reasonable solutions to suburban concerns along this corridor that has carried varying amounts of passenger and freight trains for generations. Despite these facts, the suburban communities are seeking mitigation more than twice the size of the CREATE program, a $4.6 billion initiative of 70 projects on four rail corridors to better handle the 1,200 freight and passenger trains (pre-pandemic) operating in the Chicago region.”
— Updated at 10:18 to correct information on train counts; updated at 12:45 p.m. with statement from Canadian Pacific.
After 30+ years working in regulated industries (and dealing with regulators) I can hear the STB’s eyes rolling when this dropped on their desk. As public servants they have a duty to respect their constituents no matter how inane. (A personal favorite anecdote: Upon hearing that wastewater would be treated to a pH of 7 a constituent replied, “If you can get it down to 7 you can get it down to 0!”) The majority transition away from the realities of industry, which Western reality completely depends on, is amusing at best and worrisome at most.
I can agree to these three:
— Nine grade-separated crossings in Bensenville, Itasca, Wood Dale, and Barlett at a cost of $315 million.
— Construction of a major state highway interchange in Bensenville for $125 million.
— Safety upgrades at 20 grade crossings.
The rest is greed. There are more communities in the Chicago Metro that can tolerate train noise very easily without abatement. I would like to see WHY Metra would need to upgrade the tracks in Elgin.
What does that current state highway intersection at Bensenville have to do with the projected increased freight rail traffic on the Metra Milw West Line/CP Elgin Sub? If you know what intersection we are talking about, Mr. Rice, would you please identify it?
When I read it I was thinking specifically of the intersection of Irving Park Road and Wood Dale Road in Wood Dale. CP crosses at grade at an angle. If they run PSR like lash ups, this already congested intersection would get worse.
As for “state highways” in Bensenville, IL-83 (Busse Road, aka as the Kingery Highway) is the one they are referring to. Today to get to IL-83 you have to take residential side streets from Irving Park Road to reach the highway because the railroad parallels Irving Park too closely. IDOT really wants to make IL-83 more limited access and Bensenville wants to get that traffic out of the neighborhoods. IL-83 has a bridge over the former MILW tracks and this ask has nothing to do with train operations technically. It’s to fix a design issue IDOT had back in 1968 when Bensenville objected to the amount of land they wanted to make a legit set of exit ramps to get around the railroad proximity. I would like to see what $125 million buys to be honest with you. Probably buy out private property adjacent to the tracks on each side so they can put in ramps which will permit all of the street level access to IL-83 south of Foster to be removed.
If I remember correctly Tri-Rail in Florida, at one time, was dispatched by CSX but Tri-Rail owned the tracks.
Presenting such a giant list instantly makes an entity appear ridiculous. They would have been better off with a modest list and some reasonable asks. With a list that long you risk the entire ask being rejected.
Getting away from the story but anyone see CPKS have a big upside on Crude By Rail shipments? Pretty much any type of crude production is going to make money at this point and can see Alberta sands production being ramped up big time at these prices. Yes, keystone would be huge across the border but it is not the only way to ship crude and can only see CN and CP having a big year..
I can’t say for certain, but if there was Canadian Crude by Rail heading to the KCS I suspect much of it would bypass Chicago and run direct from LaCrescent to Sabula.
Yup. Probable go direct to the gulf for export. Can make more money on it that way.
Both CP and CN signed large haulage agreements for Alberta shale oil. CN and CP currently ship the oil to each coast in Canada where refineries exist.
But CP didn’t have access to the US Petro Coast pre-merger, so yes, they *are* looking to bring shale oil down and this option is part of their revenue improvement projections.
Yep, pretty much insane. Have to agree with Tom and Walter comments on grade crossings is legit and everything else is shooting for the moon and simply put, more entitlement.
I also demand $9 billion dollars before I approve of this merger! I have some pet projects of my own that could use some funding. 🙂
I for one remember back when I was about four in 1939 and lived in Glen Ellyn where the C&NW split the village, a house near ours burned down because the fire station was on the north side and we were on the south side. These towns have seen the C.N. take over the E.J.& E. where train traffic (number and length) increased dramatically dramatically and were stiffed by C.N. They are going to throw everything they can against the wall in the hope some WILL stick.
So the Taylor Street underpass didn’t exist then? I’m pretty sure it has existed since C&NW through Glen Ellyn was only 2 tracks more than 100 years ago. Just sayin’
Wow…currently 3 trains per day, moved up to 11 trains per day. That’s an additional 8 trains over 24 hours. When I went to school, that equaled 1 additional train every 3 hours. Someone on that “committee” bumped their head.
Unreal. I could see these NIMBYs in some other Metro area, but Chicagoland? Get in your Prius and drive to LaGrange, or Glenview, or Elmhurst, or Mt. Prospect, or Lake Forest, or Deerfield, or numerous other suburbs, and see how they cope with frequent freights at grade. Answer: Very well indeed. Most of these communities are prospering.
My own municipality (Town of Brookfield, Waukesha County Wisconsin) has citizens on both sides of CP Rail, which runs at grade, but only one fire station. What would happen if the CP Rail crossings were blocked? Rather simple. Call up City of Brookfield fire and rescue which has fire stations on both sides of the tracks. Or Menomonee Falls fire and rescue, or Sussex.
Charles I lived in Streamwood/Hanover Park area for well over 30 years and can tell you if they triple their freights all their doing is going back to the 80’s when that many ran Monday to Friday and a lesser amount on weekends. Bartlett, Hanover Park, Roselle all have fire stations on both sides of the tracks and they all assist each other with Streamwood and Schaumburg assist too. Schaumburgs tracks are basically Roselle since the tracks are at their border as well as their station. The Village President of Hanover Park (Rodney Craig) is on the METRA Board and should be taking a lead but he has been called King Rodney in the past for his politics. As far as I’m concerned they can take their demands and go pound sand. Hell Elgin can more than afford new stations if they wanted but they said in the past they wanted to keep the two downtown in their historical shape. The Big Timber Road station doesn’t need anything.
I know someone who drives a Prius. They’re paying 15 bucks to fill the thing up twice a month these days while other people I know are spending the better part of 100 bucks per tank. I don’t scoff. They also live in Glen Ellyn, Illinois and don’t complain (much) about the 30 or more freights and 60-ish Metra trains that pass through town every day. (Every once in awhile one pulls a knuckle or something, blocking crossings for awhile.) There used to be more trains, lots more, back when there was C&NW and CA&E and CGW all passing through.
Unreal how people see themselves entitled today.
Talk about NIMBYs. These towns have got to be out of there mind. 9.5 billion for the combined towns pop. of 300,000. That’s like 31,000 per person. How much of that would go into into some very connected peoples pockets?
They have submitted quite a laundry list of measures. In defense of the communities, they have a legitimate concern about more crossing blockage and its negative effects on public safety and quality of life.
Tom I agree with you about concerns about crossing blockage an negative on public safety but construction of stations an related facilities. The freight railroads don’t even own the trackage Metra does CP just dispatches it. Shouldn’t that be up to Metra to build stations an facilities. An for a cost of between 5 to 8.9 billion they have to be some stations.
“The freight railroads [really only one, CP] don’t even own the trackage Metra does CP just dispatches it.” (I know this is a “run-on” sentence.) “Just dispatches it”?!?!?! Like that is a small thing? And Metra does have its own dispatching center in Chicago. Does any on this forum think it just a leetle bit strange, unnatural, that a foreign national freight railroad, headquartered in that other country is let to control train movements on an American-owned publicly funded commuter/regional railroad??? And btw, Metra is 100% responsible for funding and accomplishing all the Engineering Department functions (track&signal). Can any on this forum cite another publicly-owned and funded commuter railroad in the U.S. that is in that situation? I have to wonder if any of the elected and appointed officials in the west suburban town named know that CP has dispatching authority. I have to think that if they did know they would be having fits and wanting to know why Metra doesn’t dispatch what it owns just like it does with the Electric and Rock Island Districts.
That was the deal that was cut when the MILW went bankrupt.
In the historical context it makes sense. MILW needed out of the commuter burden, but RTA didn’t really want to operate a railroad. Foresight wasn’t good and everything was based on peak oriented service and modest relatively small freight trains dispatched locally.
Now it is part of a larger system and the public has the burden of ownership without the benefits of control.