ndbprr:

We had a "Home expo" in New Lenox two weeks ago designed to allow various contractors and businesses an opportunity to show their wares in a neutral setting.  Among the exhibitors were three of the village trustees running for reelction.  I introduced myself and told them right up front I was in favor of the CN/EJ&E merger to which I got three groans.  I told them I found it very disinegnuous to make claims that people were going to die at railroad crossings because trains were going to keep ambulances from transporting them to hospitals,  that people would die from diesel polution, that the village would have to pay for a plan in the event of a massive wreck that they didn't have in place now and that massive delays were going to occur from blocked crossings in the middle of farm fields.  I got three people at the same time telling me that I didn't understand.  I stopped them and informed them that I did indeed understand.  I understood we have a two track railroad running through the heart of town (Rock Island) that had 68 Metra trains daily and up to fifteen freights most with 50-75 cars of ethanol and a major interstate (I-80) running through town and why didn;t a disaster plan already exist since that was far more dangerous than the 26 trains planned for the EJ&E running at least a mile south of the current town.  I was informed that I didn;t understand politics and they were merely doing their jobs trying to get more money from the CN for overpasses they can't fund currently.  So I asked why they were needed there and not in the heart of town with more than three times the number of trains and how many people had died there?  Then they got confrontational and told me basically, "tough if you don;t like it"  I said, "well I think the theaters in town need more doors so I will go tonight and as I leave I will yell FIRE!"  That will get the people to put in more doors.  I was told I would be locked up for lieing".  I told them, "Now you get it" and walked off leaving them mumbling to themselves.

Pluse dosen't already Barrington see Metra trains on the UP NorthWest lne, and if i'm not mistaken dosen't UP still run freight trains up to Janseville  even though the GM truck plant is now closed?  So my question is why do the have such a NIMBY attiude toward trains if they already see a preitey fair amount already?  I think they are just cry babies.  Please let me know thank you. 

The Metra Northwest Line is paralleled by Northwest Highway for much of its length in the area so much of the property along that line is commercial with few residences close to the tracks.

wilmette2210:

Pluse dosen't already Barrington see Metra trains on the UP NorthWest lne, and if i'm not mistaken dosen't UP still run freight trains up to Janseville  even though the GM truck plant is now closed?  So my question is why do the have such a NIMBY attiude toward trains if they already see a preitey fair amount already?  I think they are just cry babies.  Please let me know thank you. 

Omaha, Nebr. - Monday, 6 April 2009.

With the closing (or "mothballing") of the General Motors plant in Janesville, U.P. has reduced freight service by way of its Harvard Subdivision to this Wisconsin city, and I should think that what's left pretty well runs at night.

As for the commuter trains running through Barrington, a number of years ago the village built a new passenger depot a few blocks east of its original site.  Westbound trains passenger trains now can pull up to the station, stop, and exchange passengers without activating the busy Main St. and Hough St. crossing gates.  Because these trains have much higher horsepower per trailing ton ratios than the average freight, they accelerate quickly and thus minimize the delays to the flow of vehicular traffic. 

Yes, the weekday rush hour commuter trains (morning/inbound & evening/ outbound) do play havoc with auto and truck traffic moving through downtown Barrington, but the village has lived with that inconvenience for many decades now.  And with this town being essentially a bedroom community with so many passengers daily riding the "scoots" to work, school, shopping, and Chicago's entertainment venues, the general consensus may be that the commuter service is worth having even if the citizenry has to put up with some relatively brief crossing inconveniences once in awhile.

Growing up in Barrington (1956-1970), I remember that most E.J.& E. freights were pretty long, but they seemed to zip through town pretty quickly.  Their coordination with the CNW crossing at grade was laudable because I cannot recall a single instance where the passage of a "J" train held up a commuter scoot.  Oh sure once in awhile the tower operator may have forgotten to clear the absolute signals protecting this crossing and the scoot took a 90-second delay in its schedule, but those instances were pretty rare.  But then again, the village is now looking at a 400% increase in freight train traffic on the "J's" single track line, so that could pose a problem.      

Ok but could someone please confirm if UP still runs freight trains to Janseville Wisonsin? If so do they mostley run at night?  I would also think that this will prove that Barrington can deal with increassed train traffic and stop beeing NIMBY's about it. 

Union Pacific does indeed still run freight trains through Barrington on the route between Proviso Yard and Janesville, WI. Even without the GM plant producing Suburbans and Tahoes, there are still a fair number of customers on the line and they still need their rail connection. Although I don't live right next to the line, I can hear the train crews via my scanner and it seems that they are running on the "B train" schedule. This train leaves Proviso in the early afternoon, arrives in Janesville about 4 PM and makes a turn back to Proviso. The trip northwestward would be during the day, but the return would be at night. I don't know if they are running everyday though.

Barrington and the other cities that opposed the CN/EJ&E merger would have been better off placing their money into a fund to help build overpasses rather than to pay lawyers to try and fight interstate commerce. Does anyone know how many trains a day used the EJ&E during WW2? I'd venture to say that the numbers given in the STB filings are still lower than the traffic seen during the 1940s. Yes, I know that those trains were probably shorter but the fact remains that they live in a city with multiple active rail lines.

The CN is running trains over the EJ&E between Mattheson (south suburbs) and Leithton (north suburbs). I think they might only be running one train a day each way now (CN 342 and 343), but more are certainly coming. I was down along the EJ&E between West Chicago and Joliet on this past Saturday and saw those two CN freights meeting at Joliet around 1 PM with trios of newer CN six-axles. Northbound 343 had something like 150 cars (no lie). All the grade crossings have signs up saying "Increased Train Traffic." Even some of the EJ&E locos are being stored. Joliet has three SW1200s and a pair of SD38s sitting cold. The overnight road train out of Joliet up to Rondout and back had CN GP9RM 7033 leading the EJ&E 663 when he came back down into Joliet. Some of the EJ&E SD38-2s have been seen on CN trains running down to Champaign, IL as well as on the Iowa Divison all the way out to Council Bluffs.

The days of the "good old" Elgin, Joliet & Eastern are gone.

 Lance Wales

The following appeared in the 4/15/09 edition of The Chicago Tribune.

Train delays: CN reports 50 blockages over 2-month period

Railway says most crossing delays involved EJ & E freight trains

The issue of blocked rail crossings was one of the main objections suburbs along the EJ&E raised to the purchase. Many communities fear that additional trains will delay police, ambulances and fire equipment. Tom Mick, village manager of Park Forest, said there have always been blocked crossings along the EJ&E and questioned the report's accuracy.

"Three [blockages in Park Forest] in excess of 10 minutes sounds really low based on my observations in the community," he said.

The Feb. 19 Park Forest blockage lasting 170 minutes was due to a frozen switch, the railroad said.

CN Vice President Karen Phillips said in a letter to the transportation board that most of the blockages involved existing EJ&E trains for which CN so far hasn't significantly changed operations.

The railroad started running its trains on the EJ&E on March 11. Since then, only two trains have used the line each day, the railroad said.

Many of the blockages occurred between midnight and 5 a.m. when there is minimal auto traffic, Phillips said.

"These numbers, which indicate on average that there was less than one blockage-causing event per day during the reporting period, are likely somewhat overstated," Phillips wrote.

Phillips said CN was "not satisfied with the frequency" and is working hard to reduce them through better dispatching, improved crew communications and infrastructure improvements.

CN plans to triple or quadruple freight traffic along the line, which it will use to bypass Chicago's congested rail corridor.

The Regional Answer to Canadian National, a coalition of suburbs opposed to the CN deal, has been keeping track of delays on its own through online citizen complaints, said Karen Darch, Barrington village president. "Our big fear is getting an ambulance stuck in a blockage and you have a patient that might not survive," she said.

The Barrington-Countryside Fire Protection District said Tuesday that it has strengthened its automatic aid agreement with the Lake Zurich Fire Department to reduce the risk of emergency-response delays caused by freight trains.

Cheeck out this song posted on this web-site http://www.fightrailcongestion.com/Links.htm and tell me what you think.  Typical NIMBY attiude toward trains.  Pluse dosen't the UP also have a local that is based out of Crystal Lake that runs on the Harvard-Sub through Barrington thus proving that  Barington can live with these trains?  See my point. 

ChicagoTribune:

The Montreal-based railroad said there is no previous data with which to compare the February-March findings ...

Then if there's no previous data to compare it to, this report is worthless.

Why were there no such complaints aired in the 16 years I've lived within whistle-hearing distance of  The J? In those days, the J ran through a bunch of corn and bean fields. Now that the NIMBY army has occupied the area, we have this "stuff".

From the article quoted in the post above (emphasis added - PDN): 

The railroad started running its trains on the EJ&E on March 11. Since then, only two trains have used the line each day, the railroad said.

Many of the blockages occurred between midnight and 5 a.m. when there is minimal auto traffic, Phillips said.

"These numbers, which indicate on average that there was less than one blockage-causing event per day during the reporting period, are likely somewhat overstated," Phillips wrote.

So: If a train stops on or over an at-grade road crossing, but no one is there to drive on the road while the train is there - Does the the train "block" the crossing ?

- Paul North.

Paul_D_North_Jr:

So: If a train stops on or over an at-grade road crossing, but no one is there to drive on the road while the train is there - Does the the train "block" the crossing ?

- Paul North.

It certainly would be, especially a cumulative figure that takes into account how many vehicles of each type were delayed for how long, etc.  But only the Lord knows how that'll get measured - and by who ? - in the middle of the night in a blizzard, which is when one of the longest "blockages" occurred (170 minutes for a frozen switch, if I remember rightly).

And I'll advocate that be charged against CN at these crossings, just as soon as the DOT's - notably PennDOT here in Pennsylvania - start to take that kind of thing into account for the length (distance) and duration (time) of the delays and massive traffic back-ups that they allow to occur in the construction zones (miles of cones, barricades, "Jersey barrier" / "cattle chutes", and slow-moving or stopped traffic and trucks - and no one working, or only in one small area).

What I was really trying to convey was a poor take-off on the classic rhetorical question of: "If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise ?"  Sorry that didn't come across quite well enough, but at least it got another worthwhile thought out here to discuss.

- Paul North.

Paul:::: Of course the force measure a way is to get people out there counting the delays. Not very efficient or accurate unless you want to hire a bunch of unemployeds. An easier way is in pavement sensors that count cars and delays connected to the traffic signal activator at most grade crossings. With these sensors in several distances both the number of cars and amount of time delayed can be easily calculated. I know the GA DOT has them in our interstates to measure these same type delays and # of cars delayed. BTW they will not release these figures for any accident.