Post-Tribune
There are compelling reasons to oppose the $300 million sale of the EJ&E Railroad to Canadian National Railway.
Now it's up to federal Surface Transportation Board, a regulatory body that must approve all railroad acquisitions and mergers. The public comment period ended Feb. 1.
The sale will allow Canadian National, or CN, to bypass Chicago, a huge rail bottleneck, saving the railroad time and money. CN, which runs the largest rail network in Canada, could earn an additional $14.9 million while handling 10,000 more rail cars per year.
There's little downside for CN, but there is to Northwest Indiana.
Here's what it would mean: a 10-fold increase in hazardous material passing through the town of Griffith. In Gary, the carloads of hazardous waste passing through the city would climb from zero to 434 carloads per year.
Additional rail traffic would mean more headaches for local motorists and potentially more car-train accidents, along with increased air pollution.
The sale and consolidation would likely mean the loss of 50 jobs in Gary and Whiting and 64 other jobs across the EJ&E system.
Rep. Peter Visclosky is peeved at both railroads and opposes the sale. Visclosky thinks EJ&E is dragging its feet on a relocation of a right of way for a runway expansion at the Gary/Chicago International Airport. CN, meanwhile, has failed to reply to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District on a request to lease or buy space on its right of way for the now-derailed South Shore expansion project to Valparaiso and Lowell.
It's up to the Surface Transportation Board to disapprove the sale. The arguments against outweigh the benefits to Northwest Indiana residents.