Yes Chris, the New York Street bridge replacement was much needed but I believe it was only done due to an expansion of the (then) existing two lane New York Street to a four lane route and thus the need for the newer bridge which I think was done with City of Aurora, DuPage County and State of Illinois funding. The McCoy EJ&E overpass was built shortly after we moved into the area in 1990 due to the extension of McCoy through to the east to connect with the road near Fox Valley Mall and Route 59…not sure who funded that but most likely NOT EJ&E.
Here in New Lenox the mayor and board are having apoplexy over the idea, They have had the town meeting with “experts” telling how the trains would sit for days in backyards and the evils of diesel pollution and noise shown on cable at least twenty times. The funny part to me is the J was double tracked through this area up until about twenty years ago when it got single tracked. Funny there was no opposition before that. Oh wait. That’s where all the high priced housing devlopments have been approved that will increase the size of the town by 500% in the next ten years. Definitely a case of NIMBY in this area with stupid comments being made and worse case scenarios being used as the common operating practice. the only case I haven’t heard is the danger of a wreck with toxic materials being spilled.
And of course the funny thing is that Metra can double the number of trains on the Southwest Service from 15 to 30 in a heartbeat and no one says a word. Metra already makes a mess of downtown Barrington twice a day and plans to add more trains, but Barrington’s beef is only with freight trains. For those long-time subscribers go back and read Mike Blaszak’s excellent two-part article on the EJ&E in the August-September 1989 issues. There is more historical data on EJ&E volumes at www.cnrealitycheck.blogspot.com.
There is a big difference in running Metra trains and 10,000 ft CN manifests. I live in a town with the CN’s ex GTW mainline and for the most part, CN does a decent job moving the trains. For full disclosure, I am also a shareholder of CN and atttended the annual meeting last week in which HH called for change.
As a resident of a community in which CN passes and if I lived on or near the EJE I would be concerned about a dramatic increase in the railroad’s operations. That is a very valid point to consider. For example, yesterday’s CN 395 tied down at Munster at around 6pm. It recrewed this morning at 7am. I trust they blocked no crossings, but that is a very regular occurance here in NW Indiana.
Sunday, they tied up US421 at Haskells for over an hour. Why? To set out the 128th car of the train in a siding and then a knuckle broke during the set out. That isnt very responsible. Personally, I have waited over 30 minutes at a crossing for them to exchange crews. The alternative was to drive a few miles to an overpass. Looking back, probably would have been better to have taken the detour, but you never know.
It is very easy as a railfan to say, hey the tracks have been there forever, run the trains…more fun for me. When it impacts the lives of people or the community, it isnt quite as simple as watching trains. Particularly Cn and their legendary 10,000 ft trains.
ed
Well Ed I guess I have a built-in bias against Metra trains. I live in a town with 3 Metra stations, that sees the passage of over 90 Metra trains every weekday, and I can assure you that Metra can screw-up grade crossings with the best of them. Toss in Amtrak and we have twice as many passenger trains as freight trains on an average weekday. The double-whammy is that most Metra trains operate during peak commute periods when most people are also driving.
According to the Illinois Commerce Commission’s 2002 Grade Crossing Delay Study, the top 3 worst crossings in the Northeast Illinois Region for delaying the greatest number of vehicles are all on heavy Metra routes. Harlem Avenue (#1) in Riverside and La Grange Road (#2) in La Grange are both on the BNSF mainline, while 25th Avenue (#3) in Bellwood is on the UP Metra West Line. Bellwood is getting a grade separation at 25th Avenue, paid for largely with public funding.
Yet a lot of people choose to live in towns along The CB&Q for the reason those towns were founded – they’re all bedroom communities. The original owners and managers of the CB&Q founded Hinsdale, LaGrange and Riverside as places to build their homes while working Downtown. I lived in Brookfield and LaGrange for 15 years and most people in those towns learn to live with the train traffic. Better we have all those trains during rush hour than total gridlock on the “expressways”.
Yep, bedroom communities just like Barrington, Lake Zurich, et al. We choose to live in the railroad capital of the world, with 27 freight and 3 passenger railroads operating on 30 different rail routes. There are over 1,700 public highway-rail grade crossings in Northeastern Illinois and I don’t think any of us should be surprised or shocked to experience delays.
Those are valid points. There is no doubt that Metra frequency can create delays. But for the most part, the Metra trains are moving and the crossings will clear in a timely manner.
My concern with CN would be at or near rail junctions such as West Chicago and others or near the terminals such as Joliet, where trains are staged attempting to get into out of a yard.
Trains attempting to enter the terminals/yards have a tendancy to back up. Right now the CN in NW Indiana is a single track main from Broadway in Blue Island to SpringLake, near Merrillville as trains are parked. I dont know the layout of the EJE, but could they handle these potential backups?
ed
The area on the west side of Joliet Yard could potentially be one of the biggest messes in my mind. The line is single track until CTC Turner in Crest Hill, then it is double track from there until Bridge 198. Bridge 198 itself is single track with a pretty big speed restriction, 10-15MPH. Then it turns back to double track from the bridge into the yard. If CN doesn’t upgrade the current bridge 198 or replace it that short section of single track with the slow order could become a big time bottleneck, and there is a fairly busy grade crossing in Crest Hill between the bridge and Turner. It sounds like CN is going to double track the line from Eola to Turner but I didn’t hear mention of the bridge. Also could you imagine how busy West Chicago will be if this goes through? It will probably be a busier junction than Rochelle! That could lead to serious delays of Metra trains so I see why Metra wants to take over control of the junction. Metra also wants control of the Barrington interlocking, and if they do get the Southeast Service running, Chicago Heights also.
People in these complainer towns will have to adapt a little bit, nothing wrong with that.
Look at the canal/DesPlaines River for example. With all of the development west of the canal, more and more people each year are crossing the canal east to west and vice versa. There is only one crossing between downtown Lemont and downtown Joliet – a very, very long stretch – Route 7 at Lockport. But people have adapted.
If the crossing you are referring to is at Rockdale Junction just west of Turner, it’s not like it bridges to a remote island. People going south of tracks to north could go east to the old Route 66 (which passes under the EJE tracks) and go north from there, and return home the same way. I was on a fire department along the CB&Q with the engines and ambulances on one side of the tracks and many taxpayers (homes and businesses) on the other side (LaGrange). We were able to successfully work around the trains. They still have only the one fire station. So does Riverside, and at the time of this writing so does Western Springs, Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills.
Eh, Just raise the whole thing like Oak Park/River Forest did to the C&NW/Green Line. 
Did anyone see the Union Pacific’s formal response to the STB (filed in March) to Metra’s request for control of the Barrington and West Chicago interlockings? UP said Metra’s demands would be “counterproductive” and strongly urged the Board not to approve them. The entire UP filing was about 10 pages in length and was a pretty scathing rebuttal to Metra’s original proposal.
Accidents happen and by their nature can’t be totally planned for. Around here the CN sometimes will tie up on the mainline if there’s a problem on the Fox River Bridge. I’ve seen 'em split a train at 3 crossings if they’re going to be there for a while. Not every crew will do that but it can happen.
I have a better idea since many class 1’s need to bypass why not have IHB which is a jointly owned railroad run the EJ&E and double tack and triple track most of it.
Mr Harrison wants CN to control their route through/around Chicago, and run on the route quickly. IHB is owned by CP (49%), CSX and NS (25.5% each). Hasn’t ownership of the entire Franklin Park to Blue Island route gone to CSX?
CSX owns the IHB line from Blue Island to a point near McCook, but IHB dispatches it and is responsible for its operation, so it pretty much has joint ownership. From that point to Franklin Park it is owned directly by IHB again, as is the line east of Blue Island. I always thought CSX had majority ownership of IHB. CN would have much harder time taking over the IHB since it is partially owned by several other companies, and all of the Chicago area class one railways use at least a portion of the IHB.
Hunter Harrison mentioned at the annual report that they attempted to purchased both the Indiana Harbor Belt and the “Belt” which I assume was the Belt Railway of CHicago.
Obviously with ownership of both being split among the Class 1’s that wouldnt happen.
BTW does anyone know the ownership split of the BRC?
ed
Current owners of BRC: BNSF, CN, CP, CSX, NS, UP.
CN’s current management apparently does not have much enthusiasm for operation by way of trackage rights, which may be a factor in the EJ&E purchase and was reported to be a factor in the purchase of DMIR (B&LE was just part of the deal).
That is exactly why CN bought the DM&IR. They had trackage rights over the DM&IR on their Interstate Branch. In fact, Pokegama Yard is located on this stretch of DM&IR track. They also bought DM&IR for a second route for its trains that used the DWP. Now CN mainly runs each line directionally other than the DM&IR ore trains. Basically this current deal is very similar to the DM&IR deal, only you didn’t hear all this complaining about the DM&IR deal, since DM&IR ran in much less populated areas then the EJ&E.
Paul, you wouldn’t have any idea how that’s divided, would you? At one time, each of the 13 or 14 owner lines had an equal share of the BRC, and for a while, a merger between two owners would just mean that the new company would have a larger share. If the original owners were still the determining factor, the largest owner would be CSX, followed by NS. Probably the smallest would be UP, which I think would have inherited only half of what was originally C&EI’s share (CNW never was an owner).
Where did CP’s share come from? Soo Line?