Barrington, Ill., files briefs for appeal of CN purchase of EJ&E

Barrington, Ill., and other communities and entities appealing aspects of Canadian National Railway's purchase of the Elgin, Eastern and Joliet Railway filed final briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals last week, the Barrington Courier Review reports. CN also filed briefs, appealing certain aspects of the conditions for purchase set by the federal government.

Now the court will set a
schedule for oral arguments to be presented, which Barrington Village President
Karen Darch said she expects to commence in October.

Barrington and other
members of The Regional Answer to Canadian National coalition hope the court
will rule that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board must reconsider its 2008
decision to approve the purchase or revisit aspects of the decision, such as
CN’s responsibility to fund mitigation efforts to curb the negative impact of
increased freight traffic on the EJ&E line to surrounding communities.

"We made a point,
especially in this most recent reply, to point out the (federal board’s) failure
to analyze the need for grade crossings in Barrington," Darch said.

The EJ&E line
intersects at grade with the Metra Union Pacific Northwest line and eight major
roads in the Barrington area, including highly traveled state routes Northwest
Highway and Lake-Cook Road. However, the board did not require CN to help fund
grade separations or other mitigation projects when the purchase was approved.

In CN’s proposal to
purchase the EJ&E, the company indicated freight trains in the Barrington
area would increase from about five per day to 20 per day by the end of 2011. CN
spokesperson Patrick Waldron said there are currently about nine trains per day
going through Barrington. This included a CN train that passed through
Barrington and interrupted the Independence Day parade.

In its final brief
submitted to the court on July 23, Barrington and other coalition communities
stated that they believe the federal board did not do an effective job of
reviewing alternatives to the purchase, did not do a thorough enough review of
the environmental impact of increased freight traffic on the line and did not
take a hard look at ways to mitigate hazardous materials being transported by
CN trains.

In a separate issue
regarding the EJ&E purchase, the federal board has yet to make a ruling
regarding discrepancies in CN’s reporting of grade crossings that were blocked
for 10 minutes or longer. The discrepancies in CN’s reporting and the actual
numbers were discovered in April and the board conducted a hearing with CN
representatives about the issue.

The hearing was held after
an independent audit discovered there were 1,457 incidents of railroad
crossings being blocked for 10 minutes or more by trains on the EJ&E in
November and December 2009. CN reported to the transportation board that there
were only 14 incidents.

At the hearing, CN
officials testified they believed they were only required to report instances
where crossings were blocked for 10 minutes or longer due to stopped trains,
not all instances.

Board members voiced their
disappointment with CN and discussed extending a five-year oversight period
that was imposed as a condition of CN’s 2008 purchase of the railroad, but the
board has yet to release an official decision on the issue.

Waldron said since the
hearing, CN has been submitting monthly reports to the federal board that
detail all the instances of crossings on the EJ&E that were blocked by
trains for at least 10 minutes. In April CN reported 1,510 incidents, in May it
reported 1,321 incidents and in June it reported 1,176 incidents.

In addition, Darch said
Barrington is still working with CN and the Illinois Department of
Transportation to establish a quiet zone on the EJ&E between Northwest
Highway and Lake-Cook Road — an area where the line intersects with Hough
Street and the Metra Union Pacific Northwest commuter tracks. Quiet zones are
already in effect north of Northwest Highway and south of Lake-Cook Road.

"It’s moving along,
but more slowly than we would like," Darch said. "We’re pushing
because we recognize (the train horns) are a pain in the neck."