Post-Tribune staff report
PORTAGE -- A Griffith town council member is trying to hook up cities and towns in Indiana and Illinois that oppose the proposed Canadian National Railway purchase of the EJ&E Railroad.
Stan Dobosz of Griffith told the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission Transportation Policy Committee on Tuesday that he has been working with Dyer, Schererville and Merrillville against the CN purchase plans that were the subject of a recent meeting of 16 cities and towns in the EJ&E corridor.
NIRPC sent a letter, dated Jan. 31 and signed by Executive Director John Swanson, to the Surface Transportation Board in Washington, D.C., stating the commission's objection to the sale. The letter cited potential negative impact on the extension of the South Shore commuter line, the expansion of the Gary-Chicago International Airport, and ongoing efforts to reduce traffic congestion, improve grade crossing safety, and improve air quality in the region.
The letter calls the three-year Environmental Impact Study for the purchase "inadequate" and calls for a longer-term study as "more realistic."
"Illinois communities opposing this seem to be well-organized," Dobosz said, mentioning Joliet and Barrington among Chicago suburbs along the route that runs around the city in a belt to Waukegan .
He also noted that Gary and Hammond have sent their objections to the federal government.
"(U.S. Rep. Pete) Visclosky is right on top of this," Dobosz said. The EJ&E sale is of particular concern to Griffith because it would increase the number of trains passing through daily from nine to "30 to 34, averaging eight to ten thousand feet long. It will cut the town in two," he said.
The result would be increased costs for police patrols and disruption of the north-south commuter traffic through town, he said.