ITASCA, Ill. — A group of Chicago suburbs seeking more than $9 billion to mitigate impacts of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger says it will present new testimony showing potential adverse effects at a public meeting tonight on the Surface Transportation Board’s Draft Environmental Impact Study on the merger.
The meeting, the first of four public sessions over the next four days, will be held at the Westin Chicago Northwest hotel, 400 Park Boulevard in Itasca, beginning at 6 p.m.
A press release from the Coalition to Stop CPKC claims the merger could add as many as 14 freight trains per day on the route shared by CP and Metra’s Milwaukee West commuter line. The CP-KCS merger filing with the STB estimates freight traffic will increase by eight trains per day, from three to 11, three years after the merger.
“The increase in the number of trains — and in train lengths to nearly 3 miles — would have a detrimental impact on the quality of life for residents and business operations, property values, and vehicular movement from numerous harms, including safety generally, crossing delays, noise, vibration, environmental, and dangers to pedestrians and commuters,” the coalition says in a press release.
Coalition members are the communities of Bartlett, Bensenville, Elgin, Itasca, Hanover Park, Roselle, Wood Dale, and Schaumburg, as well as DuPage County. Earlier this year, they asked the STB to block the merger, but failing that requested up to $9.5 billion for infrastructure improvements [see “Chicago suburbs seek $9.5 billion …,” Trains News Wire, March 1, 2022]. In a July document responding to filings by other parties regarding the merger, CP called conditions sought by coalition members “simply untenable and disproportionate to any possible impact” of the merger [see “CP, KCS dispute Metra merger contentions …,” News Wire, July 14, 2022].
The draft environmental report released earlier this year by the STB’s Office of Environmental Analysis concluded that “apart from train noise, which could result in adverse impacts at some locations,” the potential impacts of the merger would be “negligible, minor, and/or temporary” [see “STB draft review finds little environmental impact …,” News Wire, Aug. 5, 2022].
Other in-person meetings on the STB’s environmental report will be held Tuesday in Davenport, Iowa; Wednesday in Excelsior Springs, Missouri; and Thursday in Beaumont, Texas. More information is at the STB website on the merger.
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