DUBUQUE, Iowa — The City of Dubuque has become the latest to voice concerns over traffic increases that could result from the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, writing in a letter to the Surface Transportation Board that it seeks nine forms of mitigation — including construction of a $20 million overpass — if it is to support the merger.
The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports the Dubuque City Council is scheduled to today (Jan. 3, 2022) review a letter from City Manager Mike Van Milligen outlining those nine conditions.
The railroad has indicated train counts could double, from six to nine daily to 12 to 18 per day, as a result of post-merger traffic growth [see “CP and KCS project dramatic rise in daily train counts,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 2, 2021].
The city’s letter says “Dubuque already has challenges with the current nine trains per day. The proposed merger will have real and tangible negative impacts on Dubuque and specifically on the mostly low-income residents to live adjacent to the tracks in the heart of our downtown and the businesses in the same general area.” These include increased problems with existing stormwater infrastructure, vibration damage to historic buildings, risk a derailment would pose to the city’s water plant, and air and noise pollution.
They also include traffic disruptions, an area in which the letter says CP and Canadian National, which shares some track with CP, “have a long and sordid history over many decades of blocking key east-west road crossings … There are regular occurences … when parked trains block road crossings for hours.”
The city has previously sought federal grants to help construct an overpass at 14th Street, which it estimated would cost almost $20 million. It wants the railroad to fund that project, as well as these additional measures:
— Construction of an underpass at the current Jones Street grade crossing.
— Construction of a separated pedestrian crossing at a location to be selected by the city.
— Construction of a quiet zone through the community to eliminate the need for train horns at grade crossings.
— Creation of an “impact barrier” to protect the city water plant adjacent to the tracks.
— Installation of Centralized Traffic Control to minimize blocked grade crossings along the section of track shared with Canadian National.
— Establishment of a location outside of the city to hold trains to avoid blocked grade crossings.
— A 20-mph speed limit in the city to mitigate ground vibrations.
— Evaluation of safety conditions of the railroad infrastructure by federal regulators, with corrective action as required.
The city has met with CP representatives, Van Milligen says, but the railroad has not yet offered any financial support. CP said in an email that talks with the city are continuing and that it will “work hard to be a good neighbor.”
Like Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa — two cities about 70 miles to the south which have voiced their own concerns about the merger [see “Iowa cities say they face ‘disastrous impact’ …,” News Wire, Dec. 20, 2021] — ask that a member of the STB visit “to view first-hand how the merger will have disastrous impact on this community.” Letters from Bettendorf and Davenport to the STB are among documents to be reviewed by the city council.
They’re going for a home run, hoping to get a single or double. I can see why the Feds won’t finance the 14th Street project. Just looking at Google Earth shows it’s clearly not a NECESSITY.
A separated pedestrian crossing obviously isn’t either.
A city water plant “impact barrier” adjacent to the tracks is clearly onother piece of posturing.
If there is PTC then CTC isn’t needed.
If there is a location outside of the city to hold trains to avoid blocked grade crossings, then over and underpasses are unnecessary.
And I’m certain car and truck traffic is far more dangerous to the city when it comes to ground vibrations.
And “Evaluation of safety conditions of the railroad infrastructure by federal regulators, with corrective action as required” is redundancy, b/c that is all going to be done.
Yeah, it sounds like extortion to me.
Isn’t this called “extortion”???
The STB should look at it this way, who was there first? Then make decisions based on that context and that context alone, doesn’t matter what has happened in the intervening 150+ years.
Remember when these railroads were given these right of ways trains ran at most 3 or 4 times a day each direction and actually served the towns they pass through. Now the railroads want to run 12-20 trains a day through these towns and cities. Add that these same trains are now 1.5 -2 miles long and when one either brakes down in town or one of the geniuses running these railroads stops one of these trains in a town and block roads for hours on end because a crew goes dead it is quite understandable that these towns are not happy.
3 – 4 times a day, what rock have you been under? I’d bet anything that during the “golden” age of railroading these lines saw more trains then they’re taking about running after the merger.
A 1942 timetable showed 15 (7 passenger and 8 freight) trains through Dubuque each day. Timetables from the 1950s on showed about 6 freights per day.
Negotiations 101
This is a case of “I don’t know what you’ll get if you ask but I do know what you’ll get if you don’t ask.”
CPKC also shares track with UP a few miles north in Clinton, Iowa. Same Geneva Sub that brings all the double stacks to Chicago from North Platte.
Bettendorf and Davenport, CPKC runs on the flood plain side of the Mississippi with BNSF on the bluff side.
If the railroad had a lot of online customers in these areas I would say something else, but when you drop services in these local towns in favor of pass through long distance consists, they aren’t exactly frothing to accommodate you.
Sounds like some of these projects should have been done long ago…but as long as you have your check book open!
its called: over requesting, with hope that half gets funded. This is how our culture is conditioned to behave. Blessings
Charles how far will this go? Answer to far. I can see some changes with in reason. But a lot of this is going to far. For starters a 20 million over pass? A pedestrian over pass (to be place to be named latter) a impact barrier. And all the other towns will demand much more if this happens. When they go this far just tell them to stick it an run the trains!
CN giving in to the demands of the Chicago suburbs when it bought EJ&E established a precedent. Now CPKC can’t add trains to its own tracks without being forced to rebuild the cities it passes through. Which is a whole lot of cities.
For CPKC, it’s not just Dubuque, it’s up and down the line from Minnesota to the middle of Mexico.
Reasonable measures, compromises in good faith, will no longer be enough. Now railroads will be required to mitigate any and all effects of, well, running trains.
What’s next? How far will this go?