Regulator Expands CN-EJ&E Reporting

Asking for changes to the controversial approval of a key rail merger, Chicago suburbs and the Illinois Department of Transportation managed to get a split decision out of the Surface Transportation Board.

The STB ruled in late October that Canadian National Railway would have to beef up the already unprecedented level of monthly reporting tied to its acquisition of Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway, the short line that arcs around Chicago.

However, the federal regulatory agency refused to take a broad new look at the impact of the merger, as requested by the suburbs. And the board turned aside as “premature” the state DOT’s plea to lift a deadline, which may already be in jeopardy, to launch construction of two major rail crossing construction projects.

From the STB’s viewpoint, such a ruling shows how sensitive it is to concerns that CN’s big plan — to shift train traffic out of congested downtown tracks onto EJ&E’s less-traveled lines arcing around the continent’s biggest rail hub — can complicate life in the already busy small towns along the short-line route.

“While efficiency is a major goal in an era of international and intermodal competition,” STB Chairman Daniel R. Elliott said in a Nov. 2 Chicago speech, “we must not lose sight of the families and businesses that are impacted: the mother who is late for work because of a delayed commuter train, or the small business owner who can’t make a delivery because he was stuck at an at-grade crossing.”

Merger critics don’t think the board realizes how much impact there may be.

The IDOT had asked the STB to reopen the merger approval for a technical but potentially crucial change: lifting a seven-year deadline to begin work on two big rail-road separation projects in order to collect big portions from CN.

The STB said the state had a point, in that appeals already have delayed the projects about a year and could delay them longer. But, in effect, the board said, “Ask us again later.”

The attorney in the case earlier said he expected the rejection of the request for review of the merger, and said he plans to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals to decide the issue for the state DOT.

Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.