Chicago Area Questions about reroutes and other things

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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At the risk of being accused of ‘raising the dead’ The thread currently on CN interchanging with CSX in order to somehow get around the traffic bottleneck of Chicago; reminded me this has been an on-going problem for years. Railroads rubber-tired their piggy back trailers through traffic from one line to another. The biggest reason, IIRC was always to do with height clearances, so OTR local transfer was required.

Of recent history, there have been several major rebuilding projects and Corporate rail mergers which have facilitated better transfer of double-stacked containers and TOFC traffic in and around Chicago. Not to mention EJ&E is now a CNR property, and IC is now CNR to name a couple of major changes and NS is now big in the area, as well.

Six years ago, they were looking for ways to reroute traffic and keep it out of Chicago, with St.Louis and Memphis both being mentioned and jockeyed into positions to handle rerouted freight from Chicago to keep volumes up, and traffic flowing: The following article was a link from a story on TRAINS Newswire:

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/57798/723117.aspx#723117

Thread title was: “BNSF Buys the DuQuoin-St.Louis line from CN”

My questions are: How has this particular link worked out or is working out currently?

Have any of the Chicago area construction projects aided in speedier exchange across town of Double stacks and TOFC equipment?

Out here in Kansas, I’ve seen blocks of CSX double stacks on Westbonds on BNSF, are they brought through Chicago or on another route?

Is BNSF using its CN (nee: ICRR) utilizing its trackage rights, in Sothern ILLinois?

At one point the West Tenn Railroad was going to be a route from Western Kentucky to bypass the Memphis area(via Jackson,TN.) is that happening?

Thanks;

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Chicago can still be called the rail hub / capital of the world. Although, it might depend on what your definition of Chicago is. The railroads that run through Chicago have found ways to reroute traffic and keep it out of Chicago proper. It might be a better to suggest that the Chicago area is the rail capital. Just look at how much the Chicago rail landscape has changed in roughly the last ten years. Union Pacific has built Global 3 in Rochele (75 miles west of Chicago) and Global 4 was just finished south of Joliet while they closed Canal Street and IMX in Chicago. BNSF opened Logistics Park, also just south of Joliet, in 2001 and does its major classification for the Chicago area in Galesburg which is about 130 miles southwest of Chicago. CN bought the EJE so that they could go around downtown Chicago instead of through it.

CREATE ( Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency) has been around for about ten years and according to its website (http://www.createprogram.org/index.htm) there 70 projects to improve rail infrastructure that will reduce delays.

CC