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CREATE continues taking on Chicago’s tangled rails - after 13 years


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 25 July 2016 - 04:39 PM

Progressive Railroading, July 2016:
 

After 13 years of collaboration and determination, CREATE partners continue to take on Chicago’s tangled rail network

 

When the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced the FASTLANE Program’s 18 grant recipients on July 6, the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program wasn’t among them. The state of Illinois had applied for a $110.1 million grant for CREATE through the new federal funding program, which is known more by its catchy acronym than its long, formal name: Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies.

The FASTLANE grant would have covered 60 percent of the cost for final design and construction work for three coordinated grade separations targeting highly used freight lines leading into and out of the Belt Railway Co. of Chicago’s (BRC) Clearing Yard, the largest classification terminal in Chicago and one of the nation’s biggest hump yards. CREATE partners seek to grade separate BRC crossings at Archer and Columbus avenues, and a Union Pacific Railroad crossing at 95th Street.

 

Launched in 2003, the $4.4 billion CREATE program involves 70 projects designed to separate freight and passenger trains at six key junctions; eliminate about two dozen crossings; and increase rail capacity, speed and reliability in the Chicago area. The program is managed via a public-private partnership (PPP) among Amtrak, the Association of American Railroads (AAR), BNSF Railway Co., BRC, the Chicago and Illinois departments of transportation, Canadian Pacific, CN, CSX, Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Co. (IHB), Metra, Norfolk Southern Railway and UP.

 

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