Gary, Ind., airport hopes for rail deal by end of October

Gary/Chicago International Airport officials are hopeful an agreement on moving railroad tracks blocking airport expansion can be hammered out within a month, perhaps allowing some work on the project to begin this year, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports.

Airport authority lawyer
Patrick Lyp told the authority board Sept. 23 that a proposal from Canadian
National Railway on moving the tracks could be brought before them for their
approval by the end of October.

"We continue to
negotiate with the rail lines, and we are doing real well on that, and they are
being cooperative," Authority President Nathaniel Williams said.

The airport’s expansion
plans have been stalled for two years as negotiations over moving the former
EJ&E tracks, now owned by CN, have dragged on. Those tracks sit just 130
feet from the northwest end of its main runway. Those negotiations also involve
CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern, which both have tracks that cross the
Canadian National line north of the airport.

Williams confirmed that
negotiations over where to move the tracks now involve only what is known as
"option A," a plan that won FAA approval and is eligible for federal
funding. Some previous plans to move the tracks carried price tags of more than
$50 million. The FAA would pay only about half that cost.