Article A Look at Transportation Issues | Rep. Lipinski backs CN in rail fight | from Crain’s Chicago Business News, Analysis & Articles

Chicago Business News, Analysis & Articles | Rep. Lipinski backs CN in rail fight | Crain’s
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=30648

According to Crain’s, Rep. Daniel Lipinski, (D-3) , is going to buck Sen. Dick Durbin and other Illinois elected officials, and back the Canadian National Railroad in its bid to buy a set of railroad tracks that will permit it to ship freight around Chicago, instead of through Chicago. “Canadian National wants to divert freight trains from its routes in Chicago and close-in suburbs to the Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway, a 200-mile bypass route around the Chicago area that stretches from Waukegan to Gary, Ind.”

Routing around downtown should speed up the freight trains, and save energy. Some suburban officials are complaining that the trains, which can have as many 400 cars, will block emergency vehicles and cause other problems because the train tracks run at ground level. When trains come through, intersections must close until the train passes.

Crain’s has covered this hot-button issue previously, claiming the opponents are exaggerating the ill effects of more and longer trains through their towns.

What is interesting about this issue is that railroad traffic has been decreasing since the rise of interstates and the use of trucks for long-haul and short-haul movement of goods. However, now that gasoline and diesel fuel costs have risen, it is more cost-effective to ship goods, especially for long trips, on railroad trains.

The issue then, of legislators moving to help railroads, which is the eco-friendly move, plays out as a “NIMBY” issue in some of the wealthy suburbs where the tracks in question lie. While it may be poltically awkward for legislators to do the right thing, and support the railroad move to acquire more tracks to be able to run ship freight around more efficiently, saving energy, reducing the cost of goods by reducing the cost of their transportation, and working with the suburbs to create overpasses or underpasses (which are admittedly expensive,) it requires leadership.

It will be interesting to see if politicians can look to the future and lead, or if they will fall into factions and sell us all short.