59 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

Rockford (IL) Register Star, 12/6:
 

Letter: GBLR money should be used to improve Rockford rail lines

 

I am a railfan and I would normally be excited about any new railroad in the area. However, I would like to add my own reservations concerning the proposed Great Lakes Basin Railroad to those of Kurt Harris ("My View," Oct. 30 and Nov. 27).

 

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These facts argue against the major railroads using the GLBR to any great extent. I would prefer to see GLBR money used to improve the existing rail lines in the Rockford area. It will be a tragedy for the landowners to have their land taken for a railroad that no one will use.

 

- Jeff Stack, Roscoe

 

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[CNJRoss]

Daily Journal, Kankakee, IL 12/23:

 

Letter to the Editor

A rousing 'no' to GLB railroad

Joni Mitchell said it many years ago: "Replace paradise; put up a parking lot."

 

GLB wants to replace it with a railroad. I moved to this area 14 years ago to prepare my paradise for retirement. I thank God, every night for the blessing of being able to live in a pristine rural area, where even with my poor hearing, I can still hear car tires on the road over a mile away.

 

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I strongly urge the STB to stop this nonsense and outright deny this proposal. I also, implore our elected officials to do their job and represent the people who elected them.

 

I am part of a grass roots organization that will not disappear and will continue to actively oppose this project as long as it exists. No stall tactic of a "temporary suspension" of the EIS will side rail us.

 

Paul Gaspar

Manteno

 

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[CNJRoss]

Janesville (WI) Gazette, 1/7/17:
 

Surface Transportation Board has mixed record on rail line proposals

 

The federal agency deciding whether a new rail line should cut through Rock County has approved and denied similar projects in recent years.

 

The Surface Transportation Board in 2008 approved Canadian National's acquisition of Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Rail, a company that operated roughly 200 miles of rail in the central Midwest, according to the board decision report.

 

Like the Great Lakes Basin project proposed for Rock County, the project was met with resistance from people who lived in the area.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Post-Tribune by Chicago Tribune, 1/7:
 

Group opposed to freight train plan fills Visclosky town forum

 

More than 50 members of a local group opposed to Great Lakes Basin Transportation's plans for a freight train plan attended U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky's town forum Saturday at the Valparaiso Public Library.

 

They had to wait until the end of the forum, after Visclosky, D-Merrillville, had answered myriad questions submitted on notecards on everything from the future of the Democratic Party to trade agreements, for his comments on the issue.

 

Bob Cauffman, a founder of Residents Against the Invasion of Land by Eminent Domain, or RAILED, said he submitted a series of questions to Visclosky's office Monday and was assured he would discuss the matter during the forum.

 

"We want to know what his position is on the railway," Cauffman said. Among them, he said, was whether Congress knows which rail lines support the GLBT plan, since Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have publicly stated they do not, and whether he knows the position of the other four Class 1 railroads the freight line is supposed to serve.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Post-Tribune by Chicago Tribune, 2/17:
 

Opposition filing calls for 'no build' on GLBT rail plan

 

 

Calling Great Lakes Basin Transportation's proposal for a freight train line a "boondoggle," an attorney representing opposition groups along the route has filed a supplement to a legal brief from July that called on a federal agency to select a "no-build" option for the line.

 

"No other term better describes the folly of GLBT's proposal to spend billions of dollars to build a new rail route to enable Class 1 rail carriers to avoid congestion in the Chicago Rail Terminal, when Class 1 carriers are on record that they do not need and would not use such a route, and when factors other than a new route are already dramatically reducing congestion," Chicago attorney Thomas McFarland wrote in the filing, dated Feb. 13.

 

Mike Blaszak, an attorney for GLBT, declined to comment.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Beloit (WI) Daily News, 2/17:
 

Opponents keeping close eye on Great Lakes Basin rail plan

 

 

BELOIT — Grassroots community groups against the Great Lakes Basin Rail Line have submitted additional information to an official motion in rebuttal to Great Lakes Basin Transportation’s (GLBT) responses to Surface Transportation Board (STB) questions.

 

The Feb. 13 supplemental motion comes ahead of an anticipated update by GLBT officials over the status of the company’s progress on an official application to the STB by Feb. 28.

 

In December, the company requested, and was granted, a temporary suspension from the STB over its environmental impact statement review process. This week’s statements from opponents contested the company’s responses, claiming all questions answered were vague and also provided misleading and contradictory information not in line with previously-presented plan specifics.

 

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[CNJRoss]

WREX-TV Rockford, IL 2/24;

Digging Deeper: What the Stateline's rail economy could be with or without the Great Lakes Basin Railroad

 

ROCHELLE (WREX) - By next week, the developers behind the multi-billion dollar Great Lakes Basin Railroad are expected to update the federal government on the project.  

They called for a time out in December to refile their application.  

 

All indications are this plan is moving forward.  While there are those fighting to keep this railroad from ever happening, there are those at least interested in hearing more.

 

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"They're gonna come and take a few acres of my land, and it'd be like I opening a restaurant in Rockford and taking a homeowners 20 feet of their property," said John.  "It doesn't make you feel good."

 

Their concerns echoed when the federal agency reviewing Great Lakes Basin's potential environmental impact held meetings across local counties the rail could cut through.  Those concerns, very real.  Some say, so is the potential for growing the Stateline's economy.

To see what this new investment could mean for towns along the railroad's path, we travel to Rochelle.  Where more than 20 years ago, the city formed its own railroad system to capitalize on an opportunity.

 

More here.

 

[CNJRoss]

GazetteXtra, Janesville, WI 3/1/17:
 

Great Lakes Basin requests another extension on rail line application

 

 

The company proposing a contested rail line through Rock County has asked a federal board to extend its application deadline for the line until April 30.

 

Great Lakes Basin Transportation on Tuesday asked the federal Surface Transportation Board to halt the environmental review of its proposed rail line until the company officially files an application, which it has not done yet, company officials confirmed.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Post-Tribune by Chicago Tribune, 3/6:
 

Freight plan backers get extension, warning

 

 

Great Lakes Basin Transportation is getting the extension it wants for a suspended environmental review of its proposed freight train line, with a caveat from the federal Surface Transportation Board.

 

If the application isn't in on or before May 1, the federal agency will stop work on an environmental review of the proposal, including taking down the project website.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Daily Journal, Kankakee, IL 3/22:

As deadline nears, railroad opponents stand guard

 

 

Farmers in the northern part of Kankakee County have their eyes set on May 1, the deadline for Great Lakes Basin Transportation to finish its application for a 270-mile freight rail that would operate from Indiana to Wisconsin.

 

In a continued effort to oppose the potential railroad, more than 200 local property owners gathered Tuesday night at Grant Park High School for an update from Laura Harmon, senior legal counsel of the Illinois Farm Bureau.

 

Harmon relayed information from the Surface Transportation Board's Office of Environmental Analysis, which told GLBT on March 6 it "will cease all work on the environmental review of GLBT's proposal, including taking down the project website" if it doesn't file its application by May 1.

 

"STB's message is pretty clear," Harmon said. "They have to file by that day or they are going to cease the environmental review."

 

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