CHICAGO — Union Pacific has filed a federal lawsuit against River Forest, Ill., over noise citations the Chicago suburb has issued against the railroad since December of last year.
The suit, against the village of 11,717 (as of the 2020 census), Village President Cathy Adduci, and Police Chief Jim O’Shea, was filed today (Thursday, Oct. 3) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. It asks that the court find that federal law prohibits the village from taking action against the railroad because locomotives sometimes idle within the village. River Forest has issued more than 85 citations against the railroad, carrying about $65,000 in fines, UP says.
“Federal law leaves no room for River Forest to second-guess Union Pacific’s operational decisions, including whether or why a locomotive needs to idle at a given time,” the railroad says in its lawsuit, citing the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act as making regulation of railroads solely a matter for the Surface Transportation Board.
The suit asks that the court block the village “and any parties acting in concert with them” from enforcing any state or local laws to restrict or prevent UP locomotives from idling within the village, and award the railroad “such other relief as the court may deem just and equitable.”
River Forest is just west of Oak Park, Ill., about 10 miles from downtown Chicago, and about 3 miles east of UP’s Proviso Yard on the route also used by Metra’s UP West service. The UP suit cites the approximately 60 Metra trains per day as one reasons its trains must often wait in River Forest before proceeding.
Courthouse News Service, which first reported the suit, said the village administration and O’Shea’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
