Chicago suburbs call for merger’s environmental report to reconsider mitigation requests

WASHINGTON — Still bidding to stop or delay the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern — and hinting at legal action if that effort fails — a group of Chicago suburbs has made a new filing to the Surface Transportation Board calling for a reconsideration of the Final Environmental Impact Statement, as it regards mitigation efforts sought by those communities.

The Coalition to Stop CPKC, an association of eight communities and DuPage County, Ill., says in the filing on Monday, Feb. 27, that criticisms by STB’s Office of Environmental Analysis of a grade crossing delay analysis sponsored by the coalition “were mischaracterizations … or were, frankly, entirely wrong.

“The Coalition is reserving all its rights to seek review of the [environmental impact statement] and the final decision of the Surface Transportation Board … but we are compelled to raise several major items prior to issuance of the final decision” and request that the OEA reconsider its conclusion, the filing states.

The five-page document seeks to refute the office’s findings regarding train length and frequency, says the OEA’s use of averages and aggregation dilutes the actual impact on the communities, questions criticism of the data in the coalition’s study, and says the OEA incorrectly applied data the coalition says supports requests for grade-crossing separation at six locations.

The latest filing comes after four members of the Illinois Congressional delegation twice wrote the STB asking for a delay on the CP-KCS decision, most recently on Feb. 23, when they cited the East Palestine derailment and potential for increased hazardous-materials moves as requiring further study [see “Illinois legislators cite Ohio derailment …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 25, 2023].

Mayors from the coalition communities, as well as some state legislators, also invoked the East Palestine derailment in calling for a delay on the merger decision in a Monday press conference, the suburban Daily Herald newspaper reports, with Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain saying, “It’s a nightmare for me, and I think very mayor thinks the same thing: ‘What happens if that happens in my town?’”