WASHINGTON — The Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger would cause few adverse environmental impacts aside from increased train noise in some locations, the Surface Transportation Board said in its final environmental impact statement today.
The three-volume environmental impact statement, or EIS, incorporates comments the STB received at public hearings along CP and KCS routes in the U.S. But it largely reached the same conclusions as the draft statement that was released in August.
“Most of the potential impacts of the proposed acquisition, including impacts on grade crossing delay and emergency vehicles, would be negligible, minor, and/or temporary,” the EIS says. “However, train noise associated with increased rail traffic resulting from the proposed acquisition would result in adverse impacts on many residences and other locations that are sensitive to noise.”
But the final EIS recommends that the railroad work with affected communities for grade crossing mitigation projects where appropriate. Also recommended: Making the railroads’ commitments on environmental matters part of any conditions the STB may impose in the event the merger is approved.
The review took a close look at projected train traffic increases on the combined system’s routes, particularly between Chicago and Laredo, Texas.
The STB must wait at least 30 days after the release of the EIS to issue its final decision on the first merger of two Class I railroads in more than two decades. The final decision will be based on the transportation merits, environmental review, and comments the board has received.
The final EIS can be found online: Part I, Part II, Part III.
To Mr. Barlow’s comment above, what would be the “environmental impact” of printing all of the sections of the EIS? (850+ pages). Hopefully, no one really ‘prints’ all of the pages in the multiple PDF documents, still it does beg the question: “Does anyone actually read” all of these environmental documents?
Yes, the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) generate enormous amounts paperwork and process (and to what benefit to the overall ‘environment’?)
I downloaded Part 1 of the EIS and it is 401 pages. I started to download Part 2 but when I saw it was an 830 MB .PDF, I canceled. Part 3 is a mere 447 pages (ie only 13.1MB)! That’s an awful lot of documentation!
It’s digital paper, not actual paper from trees, and those are actually very small files, would take less than a minute to download the entire thing.
Yes, isn’t freight rail “The environmental mode?”
Good Grief People Freight has to get to it’s Destination on Schedule since the installation of Ribbon Rail Trains Operate More Smoothly and They Deserve a Standing Ovation God Bless the Merger
Upvote.