Grade Crossing Math

In a recent public letter to Canadian National President Hunter Harrison (reported on extensively in the media), Congresswoman Melissa Bean provided this interesting view of the grade crossing situation along the EJ&E Railway line.

"CN has said it is willing to fund mitigation efforts at 'three or four' grade crossings. Well, there's nearly 140 crossings along the EJ&E route, so I hope he has some proposals for the other 136 of them."

Congresswoman Bean also suggested that, "Mr. Harrison take the tone and concerns of this letter seriously..."

Well in that same tone of seriousness, we think that the Congresswoman might want to recheck her math, not to mention some of her facts.

Back in 1999, in an early phase of the STAR Line Project, Metra funded an excellent full-scale engineering study of the entire EJ&E mainline in Illinois, all the way from Waukegan around to Lynwood. As part of this study, Metra's engineering firm did a thorough inventory and analysis of the grade crossings along the route. What they found was that out of a total of 130 highway or road crossings (as opposed to pedestrian crossings), some 21 percent were for private roads. The study describes most of these 27 private roads as "gravel" or "dirt".

We certainly hope that Congresswoman Bean is not seriously recommending that Canadian National be required to construct grade separations for gravel roads.

If you take the Congresswoman's recommendations at face value, and start to analyze them, some of them defy logical explanation. Let's look at one of the more interesting examples involving Illinois Route 43. This highway crosses the EJ&E mainline twice, once near Knollwood, IL as Waukegan Road and again east of Frankfort, IL as Harlem Avenue. Congresswoman Bean apparently wants grade separations constructed at both locations.

Yet according to the Illinois Commerce Commission the top ranked grade crossing for total vehicles delayed on a daily basis, in the entire northeastern Illinois region, is the Harlem Avenue (IL 43) crossing of the BNSF mainline on the border between Berwyn and Riverside, IL. If we are actually having a serious discussion about regional grade crossing problems don't you think the poor folks in these western suburbs should be at the top of the list for any grade separation projects?

Based on Metra's study, it appears that most of the grade crossings along the EJ&E are two-lane paved roads, many of which will probably not meet the environmental impact threshold of 5,000 vehicles per day. This threshold was originally established by the Surface Transportation Board in 1998 as part of the Conrail Acquisition EIS. Grade crossings not meeting this threshold will not be included in the Board's environmental analysis.

Metra's study also identified 14 at-grade crossings of state and Federal route highways maintained by the State of Illinois. Why is this important? Well, in 2002 the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) released a comprehensive analysis of grade crossing delays in the Northeast Illinois region. The ICC concluded that,

"approximately 60 percent of the grade crossings that account for the greatest amount of delay are found on the State maintained highway system, as opposed to being on locally maintained streets and roads."

As part of its detailed analysis, the ICC discovered that,

"approximately two-thirds of the thirty grade crossings that experience the greatest amount of grade crossing delay are on the State maintained highway system, even though only about 18 percent of all grade crossings in northeastern Illinois are on the State maintained highway system. These roadways will naturally carry more motor vehicles and are more likely to be congestion points."

The ICC went on to suggest that,

"efforts to reduce grade crossing delay in the future are likely to be focused on grade crossings which carry the largest number of highway vehicles."

And this sounds a lot like the approach that Canadian National is proposing to take, i.e. focus on the crossings with the greatest traffic volumes and potential delays.

The ICC analysis also revealed that most of those grade crossings with the greatest amount of total motorist delay hours were located in very close proximity to major rail classification yards, like those found in the south suburban communities of Blue Island, Dixmoor and Riverdale. Western Avenue is a prime example. We're not aware of any plans by Canadian National to construct a classification yard anywhere along the EJ&E in Illinois.

Ironically, the one rail carrier that is responsible for delaying more total vehicles per day in northeastern Illinois than any other is not a freight railroad but rather the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation, commonly referred to as Metra.

Finally, contrary to the hype and hysteria of some of our elected officials, the ICC Study found that the majority of grade crossings in northeastern Illinois actually experience very little delay. According to the study,

* 69 percent of crossings delay no more than a total of 100 vehicles per day.

* 64 percent of crossings produce less than one hour of total motorist delay per day.

FYI, the Metra STAR Line Engineering Study is a public document that is still available on their website. The ICC report, "Motorist Delay at Public Highway - Rail Grade Crossings in Northeastern Illinois", is also a public document and still available on the Illinois Commerce Commission's website. Both make for interesting reading.