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Amtrak appoints committee to oversee Chicago congestion issues
I would hope each panel member will ride each 48 & 49, plus the Cardinal.
Another study group composed of government functionaries who will write a study that will be placed on a shelf to be studied. Where are the leaders in the railroad industry who actually railroad? CREATE was to be the magic bullet or so it was advertised. I cannot help but think of what the roads accomplished during WW2 with very little technology and the associated volumes of high priority traffic that make this congestion issue a blip on the radar. Talking, and issuing reports as a solution to a problem that goes no further is atypical these days.
This reads like a cut and paste game of appearances over action as a political sleight of hand.
Meanwhile, in London, they are about to start building a 22-mile, double-track tunnel called Crossrail 2 that will allow passengers to travel easily across the city and connect with high-speed trains to Paris and Brussels. The city and national governments are willing to invest billions of pounds in projects like this because they recognize the benefits that will flow to their city and country from making it easier to move around in. It’s like they’re on a different planet.
Amtrak is supposed to be one of the railroads involved in CREATE.
I think they’ll find that many of the problems will be found outside Chicago, in the attitudes of the freight railroads that control the infrastructure. If Amtrak had thrown some weight around, we’d have Grand Crossing taken care of, and grade separations on the old GM&O (not to mention a third track out to Joliet).
“A committee? Did he say blue-ribbon? Committees don’t get any better than that.”
As the other comments have noted this is exactly what CREATE is all about. How much money will Amtrak waste on this? Way to go Joe, day late and a dollar short as usual.
The act of a bureaucrat to give the illusion of progress while stalling for time and providing protection for inaction and lack of results.
Quite a bit of CREATE is done and it isn’t helping much (although it’s too soon to say whether the Englewood Flyover is helping anything). And, since everything is still controlled by the freight railroads, CREATE is helping them more than Amtrak and Metra like it was supposed to.
CREATE is far from complete. Looking at the project status report on CREATE’s website, just over 30 of the 70 projects are under construction or completed, with about another 20 being designed or under environmental review, and additional 20 where there is no progress at all. They have a long way to go.
The committee should ride #29 & 30 & also #49 & 48from Toledo to Chicago & back!!
The problem isn’t Chicago, it is in Dearborn, MI.
The committee will meet a number of times. They visit the line and talk to people. They’ll create a report and present it to involved parties. Everyone will nod their heads in agreement, and then the report will be filed away, never to be seen again. This is my fear.
Metra doesn’t seem to have trouble getting into Chicago. Then again, they pay a fair price for access. If Amtrak came to the table with money, the freight railroads would sell them the capacity. You get what you pay for.
As far as Create not helping, traffic has increased substantially since Create was started. Congestion may be far worse without it.
Another thing that would help is finding alternate routes for freight. How about TP&W?
Metra owns 5 of its 11 routes and has very little freight and no Amtrak competition on 2 others. Mr. Rowell may be correct about the congestion being even worse without the CREATE projects that are already done. A revitalized TP&W might help, although I think the “Illiana Railroad” is more likely to happen (not that I support it). It’s too bad Penn Central tore out the east end of the Kankakee-South Bend line.
Metra only has to get into and out of Chicago, not through it.
It is also too bad Norfolk Southern or N&W tore out the former Nickel Plate east of Gibson City, B&O tore out their line to Springfield, IL (they could connect with KCS), and Conrail tore out much of their line between Peoria and Indianapolis. There used to be a lot of Chicago alternatives.
Without much competent and coherent national rail policy of the last 40 some years those and many other important routes should of been rail banked. Right of way and rail left intact.
More deferral by Boardman. In the older days of railroading, executives would make decisions not create new committees. I would have more faith in all of this if at least they had tagged the effort to be done by a task force. At least that implies something will get done.
All it takes is money, good planning, and the WILL to get it done. We get what the politicians we elect are willing to pay for (inadequate Amtrak funding, inadequate funding for CREATE).
I support the idea of developing (or redeveloping) alternate interchange routes for trains whose final destination is NOT Chicago. Go around, not into that Gordian knot.