Just read this piece in the Sept 2013 issue about a proposed bypass around Chicago, and just got to wondering what this line might hope to do differently (better?) than other lines (BNSF’s TP&W for instance) that have come and gone with the same intention?
if there ever was a “malfuction Junction” Chi town would be it. 20 different railroads exchangeing cars and people 24/7/365. the fact that anything or person can navigate thru there is because of hard working men of your railroads and the [8D]woman today aswell. god bless all those who have dedicated their lives to the rails and engines.
Haven’t read the article, but have heard about it previously. It appears that it would save time for critical trains such as those carrying fresh produce, and may help keep certain hazmats out of Chicago. The question in my mind is how long will it take to recover the costs of purchasing the ROW and building the necessary infrastructure.
It seems to me it would be much less costly to restore the abandoned portions of the Kankakee Belt and add appropriate connections at either end.
John Timm
How many RR’s have tracks on opposite sides of Chicago that could put a bypass to use? Seems to me that for most RR’s, Chicago is the end of line and what they bring into town has to be yarded and broken up to be picked up by another RR to proceed to any final destination.
If a “bypass” were built, it would need a yard in the middle of it to scramble the train cars to their separate destinations. A yard would have to be quite a ways away from Chicago to get enough land for such a large yard. That large yard would employ a lot of people, those people would want to live close to where they work, so housing would be built nearby That population would need services (food, clothing, etc.) so the various service industries would be built to meet those needs.
Soon people would be complaining about the huge RR yard smack dab in the middle of the town and all the noise and pollution and traffic delays the trains cause and a bypass would need to be built.
If my alter boy Latin works, I’ll be addressing ms/mr “always steam”: Thank you! A CBS Radio broadcast in '58 thru the early '60s, broadcast 15 minutes every week day of an acerbic content of comedic wonderment----the Bob and Ray Show, sponsored by the Bob and Ray Over-stocked Warehouse Sales Store.
It offered an “Instant City Kit” to farmers who were tired. They said, Along the side of a busy highway build this 10 feet long section of fence, then stand on one side of it, gazing out there, some where…
Some curiosity-driven folk will stop.
“what is so fascinating?”
They’ll look and others will stop. an ice cream vendor will stop to sell to the lookers. he and others might run out of fuel.
A rescuing fuel truck driver thinks, “good place to build a gas station,” and another, “hey, motel,” But motel workers, gas station workers. need places to live that a construction company “I” could own…
And you just stand there, gazing over your Instant City Kit, waiting for the offers to buy your land…
Your logic, “always steam” person, I admire, and criticize the ones that don’t like it.
I thin
Another way to look at it is from that baseball movie… “Field of Dreams”:
“If you build it, they will come.”
I have often wondered if you built a 4 lane limited access highway from Noplace to Nowhere, would there be a traffic-jam from 4:15 to 7:30 every evening?
Based on the fact that freeways intended to be bypasses soon brought major development to the area I would venture to say the answer to your question is decidedly YES.
That’s really the source of my curiosity. The old T,P,&W was sufficiently far from Chicago, and at one point owned by Santa fe all the way to their Transload facility in Remington, Indiana, with an eastern connection to NS’s former Wabby at Logansport.
It would seem that this line could do (have done) all the things you mention,… quite well.
Last I looked, most of that line was still derelict, so it’s a little curious why they want to bother with acquiring new right of ways, when existing ones are available.
Where would that tie in on the western end?
The railroad business is slowly but inexorably moving away from the loose car business model that requires repeated switchings to get shipments from shippers to consignees. The carriers are also cooperating among themselves to have their ‘loose car’ merchandise trains classified and blocked so that these trains can operate from one carriers major classification yard to another carriers major classification yard and operate through the Chicago area as a contiguous interline train with only a crew change generally required at the point the train crosses the property line, and in many cases run-through crew agreements have been reached where one carriers crew will operate through to a terminal outside of Chicago on the receiving carriers line.
Add in the unit trains of all the forms of bulk commodities (grain, coal, ore, chemicals, oil, ethanol etc.) that have no need to be switched when they move from carrier to carrier and you have a high number of moves that do not need to be in the Chicago Switching District.
With the Chicago Switching District being what it is means that there will still need to be service for all those industries that locate in the district and as such there will be traditional interchange between carriers to service the needs of these industries. The number of industries in the CSD has declined over the years and so has the car load volumes for the industries.
The carriers are building Intermodal Terminals outside the Chicago so they can consolidate their own intermodal traffic that is destined through the Chicago gateway on other carriers and affect steel wheel movement between the carriers in run-through intermodal trains, thus eliminating the rubber tire interchange in Chicago that has been the hallmark of intermodal operations since intermodal came into existence . Needless to say the car
If UP, BNSF, NS, & CSX could come to an agreement to construct the necessary infrastructure then maybe a Chicago bypass could be built. Will that ever happen not very likely even if they bought equal shares in a separate RR to accomplish this?. Of course the politicians in Chicago would yell bloody murder and claim anti trust issues.
This might be a good solution for Detroit!!
From the pictures of Detroit, you could bulldoze the whol place, put in a giant railyard and it would be a huge improvement.
Peoria, or Galesburg via trackage rights
The Logansport Regional Authority of Transportation (LRAT) has proposed plans for new railway construction. The plan’s goal is to relieve congestion within Logansport.
The proposed bypass would allow railway traffic between points east and west of Logansport to save at least a day in transit. “Railway fly overs, signaling and other improvements have helped, but will not be sufficient to serve traffic levels in the next decade,” said (LRTA) Chairman Joe Hicksman Jr.
LRAT Commuter Operations Manager Jill Hicksman said, “Relieving freight congestion will allow faster commuter train scheduling and fewer delays. Our freeway system is at capacity. Commuters from end points like Indianapolis will get to work in Logansport on time with this bypass.”
Indiana U. S. Senator Joe (Pops) Hicksman heartily endorsed the proposal. “Logansport is the crossroads of the nation. This project is of national importance and will benefit Logansportland and all of Indiana.”
Nimmy Bee, President of the Passenger Pigeon Preservation Union (PPPU) called the proposed bypass a boondoggle. “There is no reason rail freight traffic can not go through existing, underutilized routes at Chicago. The bypass would destroy the beauty of the last place a passenger pigeon was reported seen in Indiana.”
When contacted, spokespersons for privately owned freight railways involved said they were aware of the bypass proposal, but declined comment.
Officials with the U. S. and Indiana Departments of Transportation promised to conduct their own study of the proposed bypass as soon as funding is made available. A bill introduced by Senator Hicksman and passed by the senate is now before the House Transportation Committee. That committee is chaired by Representative Bill Hicksman of Indiana’s 1st Congressional District.
Map provided by the Logansport Regional Authority of Transportation.
If the railroads and other entities involved had any sense and enough money, they should purchase a 1/2 mile wide corridor on both sides of any proposed route to prevent development of towns close to the railroad for residents to complain about.
And if any government entity wanted to build a road across the railroad tracks they would have to either put it in a tunnel or build an overpass so motorists can’t complain about trains blocking the crossings.
The proposed ‘belt’ would start on the east end at Wellsboro, IN(CN/CSX), head SW to La Crosse, IN and then go west to Coal City on the BNSF(ex-ATSF). It would connect with the UP at Wilmington, IL and CN near Peotone, IL(near the proposed airport). A branch south from Peotone would connect with the CN/NS at Kankakee, IL. If successful, it may be extended to Rochelle, IL(UP Overland Route and BNSF mainline to Mpls/St Paul & the Pacific North West).
Many of the major railroads build complete trains that are currently interchanged at Chicago without switching. BNSF builds complete trains at Galesburg for run-thru to Eastern Lines. There still are ‘loose car’ trains arriving in Chicago and they are switched, but the trend has been to build ‘unit trains’ of coal/crude oil/grain/ethanol that are transferred intact to lines like NS or CSX. Eola yard still does a lot of the loose car classification work for BNSF.
Jim
So, is what you are saying, is that the proposed location (per the article in the magazine) is superior because it connects with more of the majors… than a ramped-up TP&W would?
Interesting timeline