Canadian National wants to buy the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railway that operates a line along the Naperville/Aurora border. Some residents and commuters are concerned about increased freight train traffic, and some critics warn that hazardous materials will be transported through neighborhoods. What are your thoughts of the proposal?
CN has proposed shifting some of its freight traffic west, away from Chicago and onto the EJ&E line. By some accounts the number of freight trains daily rolling along the tracks west of Route 59 could triple. Are you concerned about CN's plans, and if so, what are you doing about it?
Yes there are objections to this! Unfortunately, I don't know what can be done.
Who would WANT to quadruple the amount of noisy trains in their neighborhood?
Here is a list of some of the faily friendly chemicals that will be traveling near our schools. (I am not even going to mention the nightmare of triyng to travel east to west if we have 50 trains a day rolling through the city) Evacuations for areas as wide as 5 miles if there are leaks or accidents.
Chloralkali, including a range of chemical products found in industries like pulp & paper, water treatment, and engineered plastics. CN handles calcium chloride, caustic potash, caustic soda, chlorine gas liquids, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen peroxide, muriatic acid, potassium hydroxide, pulp mill chemicals, salt, salt cake, smelter chemicals, soda ash, sodium chlorate, sodium hydroxide, and sodium products.
Petrochemicals, including alchohols and surfactants, binding resins and latex, diisocyanates, ethylene glycol, ethylene oxide, methanol, and propylene oxide.
Acids & chemicals NEC, including diverse chemicals like blacks, chemicals NEC, industrial chemical acids, industrial chemical gases, insecticides, herbicides, natural and synthetic rubber, nylon chemicals, sulphuric acids, vinyl acetate, and waste products.
First Step here is to call the Surface Transportation Board.
We need to complain that we didn't attend the Public Scoping Meetings because we were unclear as to its purpose. Or if you did attend, it was very unclear that the meeting was for more than acquisition. Here is one way to stress your concern if you did not attend:
"Based on the title of the Public Scoping Meeting For Acquisition, I chose not to attend the public meeting. However, now I'm hearing that this comment period will be for construction and increased operations as well. I do not believe this was clear. Will you be holding additional scoping meetings and extending the comment period ? Is it possible to request a Public Scoping Meeting in Naperville? Can we view the Safety Integration Plan before the comment period ends?"
The toll-free project line for STB is 1-800-347-0689. It's all a recording. Press "5" to state name, address, and comment. There are other options to press if you want more info. You can also go to www.stb.dot.gov. Refer to STB Finance Docket No. 35087 in all correspondence addressed to the STB. We only have until February 1, 2008.
Well that makes the location of the new high school (AME/Midwest Gen) great for the chem classes.....
NIMBY - The great American cry!
There is always someone who is going to be upset, someone willing to sue, someone willing to stop progress for selfish reasons.
I grew up in Moline, the once very busy epi-center of the Rock Island Lines. You have never seen so many trains and railroad tracks crawling through downtown areas as there were when I was growing up.
How did we deal with it? Man it must have been really rough? People must have been in a perpetual state of road rage run with all the trains? Drivers attacking one another, pulling out shotguns, brass knuckles and mace! There must have thousands killed as one derailment and then another poured chlorine, nuclear waste, silly putty, cow manure and other toxic waste on the citizens of Moline, Rock Island and East Moline? Old ladies must have been dieing by the dozens, hit by the evil trains as they pushed their walkers over the 4 sets of tracks? Babies and children must have been in open season as the speeding locomotives flew past with no regard for people. (I heard the engineers carried sling shots to see if they could hit kids and kill helpless puppies as they roared through town on their iron horse!)
No - that's not how it was at all. We left for where we wanted to go a few minutes early, knowing the trains were a part of our lives. The kids played games and tried to guess the length of the train as it approached to see who would win - and counted the cars as it went by. Moms and Dads listened to the radio, or (gasp!) talked to their kids or significant other to pass the time. Kids walked the tracks on the way too and from school, the swimming pool and friends homes. We put pennies on the rails and collected old railroad spikes thinking they were treasures from pirates long ago. There has never been a derailment there since the day I was born, no hazardous waste spills, no EPA Superfund sites, no kids born with 3 arms. And if we really had to, we put up these new fangled modern inventions called "BRIDGES" to either go over or under the tracks if it was a particularly important road.
People got along, knew their neighbors, welcomed progress, and were generally happy to be Americans and a part of the greatest nation on Earth.
But I digress, I live in a modern America where life should not be inconvenient at all, where the only thing I should ever be expected to give to the common good is my opinion! Right?
Guess we were just stupid back then. Or perhaps us Down Staters just aren't as sophisticated as the big city folk here in Naperville.
Get a grip people - it's called life.
The EJ&E line crosses several high-traffic roads at grade level. These include Ogden Ave., Diehl Rd., Wolfs Crossing, and 111th, just to name a few. Many of their long coal trains have crossed these roads late at night, when traffic is low. An increase in usage of the EJ&E line will cause a traffic nightmare in the Naperville-Aurora area if they start running these long trains earlier in the day, especially at rush hour.
Hmmm, not really sure how this became a slight against down staters. Or rail traffic in genral for that matter. This is concern about an large amount of rail traffic with hazzardous materials moving through a major population base and an operator that does not have a great safety record. (http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/202737/cn_rail_safety_record_questioned_after_two_serious_derailments_in/) I am sure people were very conncerned in Toamaroa, IL (downstate) when:
Monday, February 10, 2003 Posted: 12:01 PM EST (1701 GMT)
TAMAROA, Illinois (AP) -- Cleanup crews worked to stabilize hazardous chemicals and right the cars of a freight train that derailed near the center of town, forcing hundreds of people from their homes.
No injuries were reported after 16 cars of a northbound Illinois Central-Canadian National train derailed during Sunday morning in this southern Illinois town of 800, authorities said.
The train had been carrying vinyl chloride, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid when it overturned, Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman said.
The chemicals are hazardous to breathe and could cause death in high concentrations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many emergency workers were kept away from the trains because of the danger, Kellerman said.
Vinyl chloride leaked from one or two cars and caught fire, said Kellerman and Canadian National spokesman Jack Burke. Tamaroa village trustee William Place said methanol carried by the train also caught fire.
Crews were checking for possible soil and groundwater contamination, said Dave Searby, operations officer for the DuQuoin Emergency Services and Disaster Agency.
The train, operated by a two-person crew, likely had 100 or more cars, Burke said. He said chemical-hauling trains typically roll north from Louisiana to Chicago or to a switching point in Effingham for movement elsewhere. Each car carried 24,000 pounds of chemicals.
[End Story]
Now I guess only hundreds had to be evacuated but there were only 800 people in the city and it was a Sunday morning.
I wonder if people were standing on a hill counting the number of cars with leaking checmicals? That does sound quaint.
Oh, and there was a class action lawsuit filed by the members of that city. (get updates here: http://www.bryantpsc.com/class_act_tamaroa.htm) So, it does not sound like the city just shrugged it off as a day in the life of a small town.
In response to NIMBY,
I'm afraid you don't understand the real issue here. We are all for the great American rail system. But we would rather have Canadian National pay for the necessary improvments and make sure that our roads, schools, etc. are SAFE before they start coming through our city. If we do not get our needs written into the mitigation agreement, then it will be YOU and I that will be paying for overpasses, road improvements, sound barriers, etc. with our hard earned tax dollars.
Please re-consider and e-file at www.STB.DOT.gov. We have util Feb 1st to voice our concerns. Please get on board this very important issue that negatively impacts both you and me. Thank you.
The communities affected by this have not been given enough information about the takeover and the needed time to voice their concerns. The bottom line is there are schools, playgorunds, and hospitals that will be negatively affected by these additional trains. Ambulanes will wait longer at crossings trying to bring patients in for treatment. Air quality will suffer affecting children at schools nearby. These are only a couple of ther negatve inpacts of this takeover. More time is needed to evaluate options.
Daniel Fiems,
Have you been to East Moline lately? How about across the river in Davenport near all the downtown tracks up and down Division st and River Drive as you down towards Concord St.?
That place has become over the past decades: Crack, meth, ecst, heroine, gang and pimp/ho town.
Oddly enough, out away from those train areas there's some more kept up areas out by Utica Ridge/53rd and Forest Grove. Go figure.
>>Any objections to rail line purchase?
I'd like to object but I am on my kitchen floor gasping for air due the train that derailed and is spewing toxic chemicals into the air....my children, dogs and pet birds are already dead...
Think about it Naperville...
"I'd like to object but I am on my kitchen floor gasping for air due the train that derailed and is spewing toxic chemicals into the air....my children, dogs and pet birds are already dead...
Think about it Naperville..."
Funny how with all the freight traffic on the BNSF going through Naperville for all these years nobody has died from a derailment spewing toxic chemicals. And to think the BNSF has as many or more trains daily than the CN is proposing.
o.k. no trains thru n-ville. now maybe more people will get on-board and we can railroad the FENCE in. how about citizens,anyone for building a big ,big fence. trains meaning freight trains,of course y'll still get your new STAR line and let's get some express Metra trains,reserved for napervillians ONLY.
Anonymous on Jan 30, 6:59PM
For all hazardous materials, in the 12 years from 1994 through 2005, hazardous materials released in railroad accidents resulted in a total of 14 fatalities.
That may not seem like much until one of those is someone you know.
Many people like to gamble with railroad safety, playing the odds that nothing bad will happen. Most of the time they are right. The problem is that you don't know when the next one will be or if you will be around it when it happens. If the cargo is not there to begin with (or the amount is not increased as is the likely case with a CN purchase) then your odds are even better.
Naperville must be the world epicenter of cry-babies. If you dont want trains going by youre house, why did you move next to the tracks. Maybe you people should move in with Britney, as you all should get along well.
These people have no clue as to what happens in the REAL WORLD...They only understand that trains are for their travel to and from the city...This deal (CN/EJ&E) involves billions of dollars in products...no longer being delayed through Chicago...Most of the freight handled through here will be lumber, and building products, which will build your overpriced homes here in Naperville, and keep You Uppity Plastic People Going....Get a grip...Got a laugh from reading another poster....quoting NEC....probably has no clue that "NEC" means...."not elsewhere classified"...."NEC" equals Napervillians (not elsewhere classified)...I have lived a lot of places....BUT, most everyone in Naperville needs a reality check..they should realize that the sun doesnt really rise and set here...Get Real...You people dont really understand much more than "Your little world"...Go ahead, and love your overpriced homes, beamer, caddy, and all your worldly possessions plastic people...Some of us understand the real world and understand that each and every product consumed requires many modes of transportation...that item you bought at the store has moved at least 100 times before you it arrives at your house....without transportation...You are dead.