WASHINGTON — Four federal legislators from Illinois have repeated a call for the Surface Transportation Board to delay a decision on the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger until the STB undertakes a separate assessment of the merger’s impact on the Chicago area.
That decision could come as soon as the end of this month. The STB is required to wait at least 30 days after the release of its final Environmental Impact Statement before issuing its decision; that environmental report was released Jan. 27 [see “Final environmental review finds few problems …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 27, 2023].
The Friday, Feb. 17, letter from U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Delia Ramirez, all Democrats, reiterates a request for delay made in October by Durbin, Krishnamoorthi, and members of the suburban Coalition to Stop CPKC over concerns about the merger’s traffic and safety impacts [see “Chicago-area opponents ask regulators to delay decision …,” News Wire, Oct. 5, 2022].
The letter, included in a press release, says the STB’s final Environmental Impact Statement “significantly underestimates the impacts of the merger” and ask the board to conduct an analysis of those impacts “using modeling provided by Metra or by conducting its own independing modeling. This would more accurately assess the impacts on Illinois communities, determine appropriate mitigation measures, and meet the STB’s obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act.”
While Canadian Pacific’s modeling projects freight traffic on the line through suburbs served by Metra’s Milwaukee West line will increase from three to 11 freight trains per day, Metra’s modeling says the number could be 18 per day, the letter says. “Moving forward with a decision on the merger without further analysis risks overlooking serious adverse impacts on these communities,” the letter says.
The group of communities, as well as DuPage County, have been well-organized and vocal opponents of the merger, packing a public hearing in Itasca, Ill. [see “Chicago suburbs focus on safety …,” News Wire, Sept. 13, 2022], and testifying at the STB’s merger hearings [see “CP and KCS tout and defend their merger …,” News Wire, Sept. 28, 2022]. At one point, they sought more than $9 billion in projects to mitigate merger impacts, although that figure had been reduced to $400 million by the time of the STB hearing.
Reuters reports that CP declined to comment, while a board spokesman said the STB “takes all filings seriously, including those submitted by Congress, and will consider them as they deliberate.”
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