CN Railroad Stirkes Deals As Freight Traffic Rises
NEW LENOX, Ill. (WBBM) -- The Canadian National Railway has now reached deals with 26 of 33 suburban communities that have been impacted by its acquisition of tracks formerly belonging to the EJ&E Railway.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser reports, one by one, local communities have been accepting cash from Canadian National to lessen the impact of increased freight traffic.
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The latest such community is New Lenox.
The funds are is going toward crossing upgrades and noise mitigation.
Some towns that have accepted money say the railroad has reneged on promises, and have sued.
Also, in a first, federal regulators recently fined CN for underreporting instances when crossings were blocked for ten minutes or longer.
The railroad said it happened 14 times in 2 months.
An independent audit found it happened more than 1,400 times.
CN bought the EJ&E, which cut a 198-mile arc through the suburbs, as a reliever for its five lines radiating from Chicago.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
