CN wants to cut its contribution to Aurora overpass

Written by jrood

Canadian National Railway is trying to scale back its contribution to the most expensive of the 182 projects it's required to do as part of the 2008 EJ&E takeover, the Daily Herald reports. CN filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals saying it should not have to pay 67 percent of a $40.4 million overpass or underpass at the Ogden Avenue crossing in Aurora, Ill., or 78.5 percent of a $52.5-million overpass or underpass on Lincoln Highway in Lynwood, Ill., as ordered by the Surface Transportation Board.

CN spokesman Patrick
Waldron said the two projects, which they classify as one, require the company
to pay an unreasonably high percentage and it’s "unprecedented,
unjustified, and beyond the STB’s regulatory authority."

"What we’re saying
is, that federal and state highway authorities … have realized that a highway
grade separation is much more of a benefit to the public and to the motorists
than the railroad," he said.

CN will spend $60 million
to complete all of the other projects, Waldron added.

Aurora officials are
livid about CN’s appeal. Even though CN has just begun to use those tracks,
Chief Management Officer Carie-Anne Ergo said the city already has received
countless complaints about how the extra trains are increasing travel times,
lowering property values, and negatively impacting the residents’ quality of
life.

Ergo said the Ogden
crossing is a major thoroughfare, used by 35,000 cars per day, and is the main
access to busy places like Rush Copley Hospital and Waubonsie Valley High
School.

"If CN was going to
put this burden on us, they also need to take responsibility," Ergo said,
adding that the remaining 33 percent of the project will be funded by the
Illinois Department of Transportation and the city.

"Frankly, the
taxpayers are footing the bill for enough of CN’s profits already … the
inconvenience they’re already experiencing, it’s craziness," she said.

Train traffic will
eventually double or triple through that crossing, Ergo said, and the terms of
the deal – which CN agreed to in 2008 – were to pay a large share for the
overpass or underpass to help alleviate congestion.

"(The train traffic)
is going to create a nightmare," Ergo said. "For them to come back
now and say, ‘We shouldn’t have to pay for it,’ is infuriating. It truly is.
It’s either them paying for it, for the profits they get every quarter, or the
American taxpayer."

The CN purchased the
EJ&E in 2008 to ease freight congestion by moving trains from CN’s crowded
tracks to the underused EJ&E. CN has reached agreements with 21 of the 33
EJ&E communities, but Aurora is not among them.

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