Eastern Railroad Discussion > Barrington: STB re-open request for $37M from CN

Village of Barrington IL requests STB to re-open a previously denied proceeding requesting that CN financially contribute to a grade separation of CN's ex-EJ&E RoW through Barrington due to CN's planned increase in daily train counts by 9 to a projected 29.3 cumulative daily trains by 2020.  Barrington claims it learned of CN's plans from its permit application to the US Army Corps of Engineer in December 2018 "...requesting approval to build a second mainline track for 4.27 miles within its right-of-way running between Shoe Factory Road and Spaulding Road just to the south of Barrington. This new second mainline track will join an existing double track that extends to approximately 4.6 miles south of Barrington...

Further, to quote from Barrington's filing, "...Barrington requests this action to enable the Board to consider new evidence of double tracking near Barrington and new projections of nine (9) additional daily trains that contradicts previous sworn testimony of Canadian National Railway Company (CN) executives. This sworn testimony not only caused the Board to deny Barrington relief, but also caused the United States Court of Appeals to defer to the Board’s judgment in Village of Barrington, IL v. STB, 892 F.3d 252 (7th Circuit 2018)..."

And "...Moreover, based on this new evidence that establishes CN’s intent to install double-track near Barrington, the Board should reopen the proceeding and, after assessing the impact of the projected increase of nine daily trains on Barrington, order CN to pay a substantial percentage of the cost of the grade separation that has been necessitated solely by the total number of trains that will move through Barrington in 2020. Such relief is consistent with the relief previously granted to Aurora and Lynwood. The primary difference is that Barrington, in seeking $37 million to cover CN’s share of remaining construction costs, is only asking CN to pay a smaller percentage of the cost of construction than the railroad was ordered to pay to these other communities..."

Link to filing with STB: https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7f93537688b8e5852573210004b318/b2d31f985908cc01852583d6006ad739/$FILE/247429.pdf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/19 06:58 by JPB.

One can understand their frustration with CN.   As EJ&E, the train count was perhaps 10 per day?    And now 29 per day..........   CN is very much a hard ball operation, kicking their neighbors in the teeth.  They will not spend a dollar unless forced.