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The Times, Munster, IN 4/10/17:

Rail eminent domain changes win legislative approval

 

 

INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Eric Holcomb is expected to approve changing the state's eminent domain statute to limit why and how railroads can forcibly purchase private property for new or expanded rail service. 

 

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The legislation obligates railroads to abide by the same "public use" mandate and property-appraisal process employed by the federal government when forcing the sale of a home, farm or other land. 

 

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State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, the sponsor, said changing to the federal appraisal standard is needed, in part, to secure federal matching funds for double-tracking the South Shore Line between Gary and Michigan City.

 

Other lawmakers have said the new eminent domain requirements also may deter Great Lakes Basin Transportation from attempting to take a 200-foot wide corridor for its proposed 260-mile freight railroad connecting Northwest Indiana to southeast Wisconsin.

 

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[CNJRoss]

GazettreXtra,Janesville, WI 5/1/17:
 

Great Lakes Basin Transportation files application to build rail line

 

 

After receiving a deadline extension in late February, Great Lakes Basin Transportation applied Monday for authority from the federal Surface Transportation Board to build a proposed rail line through Rock County.

 

GLBT had until Monday to file its application or all work on its environmental impact statement, which the company must eventually complete in order to build, would stop.

 

The application was not publicly available Monday evening, but Great Lakes Basin President Frank Patton said the route through Rock County was unaltered. The Surface Transportation Board will go over the application and advise GLBT what the next steps will be, Patton said. Board representatives were unavailable for comment Monday evening.

 

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The Times, Munster, IN 6/24/17:

Great Lakes Basin files additional application documents

 

 

Great Lakes Basin Transportation submitted financial documents to the federal Surface Transportation Board Thursday that show it paid just over $400,000 last year in expenses associated with planning a freight railroad from LaPorte County to southeast Wisconsin. The company's 2016 balance sheet also shows about $800,000 in accounts payable.

 

The company raised $401,544 from investors last year, according to an income statement it filed Thursday. Itemized expenses show that most of that, or $312,828, was spent on consultants, with another $66,360 in legal fees and the rest for a variety of other business expenses.

 

The submission was in response to a June 2 decision of the STB requiring GLBT to file its most recent balance sheet and income statement. The company had not included them in the application it submitted in May to build and operate the 261-mile freight railroad, saying that it had no business operations or revenue to report.

 

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Progressive Railroading, 6/23/17:
 

Great Lakes Basin clarifies location of proposed freight-rail line

 

 

Great Lakes Basin Transportation Inc. (GLBT) yesterday filed a response to the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) request for additional information on the company's proposed new freight railroad that would operate through Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

On June 2, the STB told GLBT that it needed to provide more details in its application for regulatory approval to build the new rail line. Among the board's demands was a list specifying the cities and counties through which the railroad would operate.

In its response, GLBT officials said the line would not be built through populated areas of any incorporated cities. The counties through which it will serve are Winnebago, Ogle, Lee, LaSalle, Grundy and Kankakee in Illinois; Lake, Porter and LaPorte in Indiana; and Rock in Wisconsin.

 

 

 

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Railway-Technology.com,6/26/17:
 

‘Audacious’ private freight line hopes to end Chicago’s gridlock

 

A private group of investors has proposed a new freight rail line that bypasses Chicago as a solution to the city’s longstanding gridlock. But the project has brought criticism over its potential environmental impact on thousands of acres of farmland in north-eastern Illinois. How robust is the proposal and what are the possible pitfalls?

 

 

As North America’s single largest rail hub, Chicago handles roughly 25% of nationwide rail traffic between the country’s east and west coasts, as well as to the southern US and Canada. Approximately 500 freight trains operate in the Chicago area every day, carrying a third of all American rail freight traffic.

 

But the network has been long blighted with severe bottlenecks, with trains sometimes taking days to get through the city, which earned it the unfortunate moniker of ‘America’s rail traffic speed bump’.

 

After the gridlock reached critical levels in winter 2014, passenger rail corporation Amtrak put together a blue ribbon panel of rail and transportation leaders, which estimated that the city’s congestion problem could be costing the US economy up to $799bn every year.

 

In April, an independent group of investors known as the Great Lakes Basin Transportation (GLBT) put forward a proposal to build an entirely new, 261 mile railway that would circumvent Chicago, avoiding the endemic rail traffic delays and congestion in the city.

 

The project, to be financed from private sources, was initially estimated to cost approximately $8bn, but this was later revised to just $2.8bn in its latest application. It promises to create new capacity permitting up to 110 trains a day to bypass the existing Chicago terminal.

 

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Beloit (WI) Daily News 6/30/17:
 

Rail plan investors divulged

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Great Lakes Basin Transportation plan to potentially build a freight railway across Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana must name all top stakeholders in the project.

 

A ruling from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) requires listing all key investors on the project, with GLBT Chairman Frank Patton holding over 87 percent, GLBT Vice President Jim Wilson holding 5 percent and eight other top 10 shareholders having between .39 percent and 1.01 percent in GLBT, according to the application.

 

The application shows 24 shareholders in total, with the remaining 14 unnamed investors holding a total of 1.54 percent in the company. The ruling by the STB required only the top 10 shareholders be named.

 

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Daily Journal, Kankakee, IL 7/6/17:

Letter to the Editor

GLB application should be rejected

 

As a reasonable man, I have great concern for the validity of the process regarding the Great Lakes Basin Transportation application to the Surface Transportation Board.

 

While it appears the applicant and STB have followed procedures, there is no evidence GLB's application is anything more than speculative, and plenty of evidence GLB has neither the capacity nor expertise to build or operate a railroad. The application is little more than a route plan, with financial estimates based entirely on capacity, which is a function of design and location, rather than business planning.

 

The application does not list any potential customers and fails to address the complexity that no railroad company travels both east and west out of Chicago, and how the new line would add value to this dynamic situation.

 

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I am a taxpayer, and I am a reasonable man.

 

As a reasonable man and a business person, I can state this application does not meet the standard to continue using taxpayer dollars to evaluate. I think most reasonable men and women would agree the mountain of evidence against this project far outweighs the intentions of the developer, who in spite of many requests, can show no evidence this could ever be built or sustained.

 

As a reasonable man, I believe the STB should deny this application and spare the taxpayers any further burden.

 

Andrew Corbus

Bourbonnais

 

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[CNJRoss]

The Times, Munster, IN 8/1/17:

Great Lakes Basin, which hopes to start a freight railroad, responds to opponents in filing

 

 

Great Lakes Basin Transportation entered its response Monday to opposition groups' arguments that its application to build a 271-mile freight railroad from Northwest Indiana to southeast Wisconsin should be rejected.

 

In filings earlier this month to the federal Surface Transportation Board, opponents asked for rejection on the grounds that GLBT's application doesn't detail financing for the $2.8 billion project, nor does it show commitments from prospective users of the line.

 

GLBT responded Monday that potential investors need STB approval before they'll commit. And the railroad argued that the need for the freight line, which would serve as a bypass around Chicago, is so clear that customer demand is certain.

 

'Developer puffery'

 

The Chicago-based attorney representing six groups hoping to block the railroad, including the RAILED group in Northwest Indiana, argued in a July 10 filing that the GLBT application should be rejected due to a lack of financing details.

 

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WREX-TV Rockford, IL 8/31/17:
 

Great Lakes Basin railroad application denied by Surface Transportation Board

 

 

WINNEBAGO COUNTY (WREX) - The plan for a 261-mile multi-state rail line that would potentially cut through Winnebago, Ogle and Lee counties has been denied by the Surface Transportation Board.

 

In a decision issued Thursday, the board cites a failure by Great Lakes Basin Transportation, Inc. to "provide the Board with accurate financial information" and that its financial information is "fundamentally flawed."

 

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WKOW-TV Madison, WI 9/1/17:

Permit denied for controversial rail line through Rock County

 

 

ROCK COUNTY (WKOW) – A controversial plan to build a rail line that would begin in Rock County and eventually make its way around Chicago is dead for now.

 

The federal Surface Transportation Board  denied the application in a ruling Aug. 31, 2017.

 

Because the Board rejected Great Lakes Basin Transportation’s ’s application, the board also discontinued the environmental review process associated with the proposed project, according to a summary of the ruling.

 

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