Bottle Neck in Chicago?

[Anonymous]

There was a article recently in the Lancing news paper. In it, it said that Chicago Ill. was the biggest bottle neck in the rail Industry. The article said that until Chicago finds a way to move frieght faster through the City there will be no growth in the rail industry. Question: Why is there such a bottle neck in Chicago? Why don't they run there frieght around Chicago? Are there any other Cities that have the same bottle neck? I do not work for the railroad, I just do not understand why it takes so long to get frieght through Chicago.
TIM A

[cabforward]

chicago has been the rail center since the opening of the cattle stockyards, soon after the end of the civil war.. r.rs. have scheduled intermodal & perishable runs that by-pass this town..

the stockyards were closed more than 20 yrs.ago, but due its midwest location, closeness to the great lakes and canada, chicago will stay the rail center..

[mudchicken]

Add ATSF-NYC "Kankakee & Streator bypasses to your list...Some of the bypass possibilities that would speed things up involve underfunded shortlines (KB&S, EJ&E, TP&W) and public works like the SE Chicago 'Air Line" that have been proposed but not yet carried out.... (Still bothers me that ICETEA, TEA21 and SAFETEA waste money on bike paths and beautification while letting real efficiency items wither and die)

[JoeKoh]

Chicago is where all the railroads meet.trains for NS could come out of Kansas City and St.Louis.Csx could pick up trains in St.Louis but they prefer Chicago.
stay safe
Joe

[Saxman]

What makes getting traffic through Chicago so difficult? Railroad crossings at grade! Better know as Interlockings or Control Points. As railroads built to Chicago in the 1880's, they had to cross each other in building their routes to the city. These crossings become choke points and control issues. If railroad "A" controls the crossing with railroad "B", guess whos trains tend to receive preferential treatment?

Another issue is type of signal received and speed at the various Interlockings and Control Points. When one has to move from railroad "A" to railroad "B" at an interlocking or control point in Chicago, most of the time this is done with a Restricting Signal which requires the crew to move able to stop in half the range of vision short of several conditions such as: another train a switch not properly lined or a Stop Signal. The signal systems rarely "talk" to each other so the next one an engineer encounters just may be "STOP".( Railroads and the FRA frown on engineers passing "STOP signals without proper authority.) An example from my railroad is movement from the CN Chicago Sub. to the CN Freeport Sub. at 16th Street. There are three interlockings/control points back to back in this move controlled by three different railroads. Clark Street by Metra. 21st Street by Amtrak and Cermak by CN. While the CN Dispatcher and the tower operators tend to talk to each other in lining movments through this area, there is no guarantee that once I receive a signal at 16th Street that I have the signal at 21st street. (Think of Interlockings/Control Points like locks in a canal or islands in a river.) This move is also made around several tight curves and under overpasses which makes seeing the signals difficult at best. Another issue is that the connecting tracks between railroads are tight curves which limits most trains to a slow speed. Getting a train through these locations in the day of the 40 foot boxcar and 40 car trains wasn't the delay it is today with cars that are up to 90 foot long and trains in the 7,000 to 10,000 foot range.

So why don't the railroads up grade these bottlenecks and streamline things? The short answer is: $$$$$$$$$.

There are a few locations where upgrades have been made. One for my railroad is at Griffith where the CN crosses the EJ&E. When making a move from either railroad, if each dispatcher has his route and signal lined, I will receive a signal that is better than Restricting. However I am limited to speed because of the curve on the connecting track. However, since I have a signal better than having to stop in half the range of vision, I can confidently move at the authorized speed.

At present there is a group comprised of officers from the various railroads in Chicago and the Chicago Shippers Association working to improve the movement of trains through the city. Only time will tell how sucessful they will be.

[Anonymous]

Sir, That was very informitive, I never understood the delay's. Know I do. Sounds to me that even if the EJ&E were to lower its rates on moving frieght on there tracks It would only help the frieght movement through Chicago marginaly. The rumors I heard must be true, I heard one Engineer say it took his train 8 hours to get from Franklin Park (CP) to Barr Yard (CSX) a 30 minute drive by car.
TIM ARGUBRIGHT
Buffalo Grove Ill.

[Anonymous]

The reason that there is such a bottleneck for railroadis going through Chicago is that no one railroad goes both east and west through Chicago. All freight going around the city has to use the tracks of the Indiana HArbor Belt, the Belt Railway of Chicago, the Elgin, Joliet & EAstern, or the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal(B&OCT/CSX Transportation). Going over these railroads means going through their railyards and payingtheir crews aswell as the crews from the eastern and western railroads.
Also, there are many types of lift bridges over the Chicago River, the Calumet Harbor, and the Sanitary & Ship Canal that must be opened for boat traffic which cannot move as fast as the trains can, so these bridges are up for lengthy periods of time.
St.Louis is another city with one big problem-no true east-west railroad traffic canmake it through there without using the Terminal RailRoad Association of St.Louis bridges over the Missippi River. That causes bottlenecks for them even though their river bridges were built high enough for riverboat traffic to pass underneath without disrupting freight service.