Hello Frankfort

According to recent press accounts the town of Frankfort, IL seems to be the latest community to jump on the anti-CN NIMBY bandwagon. But there's a lot to this story that hasn't been reported.

Did you know that only 30 short years ago the EJ&E line running through Frankfort was a busy, bustling railroad? In fact, there were actually two main tracks where today only one remains. In 1979 the EJ&E had its best financial year ever, reporting a gross income of $20 million, and the railroad was operating about twice as many trains through Frankfort as it does today.

However, starting around 1981, the railroad fell on hard times and business levels declined dramatically. Radical change was taking place in the railroad industry during this period, especially in Will County. The former Michigan Central (MC) and Milwaukee Road branch lines into Joliet from the east were both abandoned. (The MC line is now the Old Plank Road Trail). The former Wabash mainline from Chicago to St. Louis was abandoned south of Manhattan, IL, and the Rock Island Line went out of business for good.

Many folks in the area apparently assumed that the EJ&E would be next, but we all know what they say about the word "assume". The EJ&E actually did tear up large portions of one of its two main tracks between East Joliet and Matteson, IL in 1987. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the EJ&E's demise were greatly exaggerated.

In the late nineties, as rail traffic nationwide was growing in leaps and bounds, prosperity finally returned to the EJ&E. In 1999, in an early phase of the STAR Line Project, Metra completed an extensive engineering analysis of the entire EJ&E line in Illinois. The report's findings on freight train operations make for very interesting reading , some of which are excerpted here with commentary attached.

"The freight railroad industry has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. The EJ&E has been actively pursuing railroad freight business that would utilize their right-of-way and consequently provide additional revenue from trackage rights agreements (translation: this means a lot more trains).

Recently, the EJ&E and UP negotiated the first phase of a trackage rights agreement from Griffith, Indiana to Chicago Heights. The next segments to be considered for a trackage-rights agreement will be from West Chicago to Waukegan and West Chicago to Joliet. The UP has performed a study of their operation and has identified that numerous trains coming to their terminal have potential to utilize the EJ&E line (translation: this means a lot more trains).

In addition to negotiations with the UP, the EJ&E has given trackage rights to the CN along the segment from Griffith, Indiana (CN connection) to Eola (BNSF). The CN has also expressed interest in access to the IC at Matteson through a trackage-rights agreement (translation: this means a lot more trains)."

Nine years ago Metra's consultants had these prophetic words of warning.

"Freight railroad operations and traffic volumes are subject to change at any time on any existing freight railroad. Growth of the national economy, improved competitive costs produced by the railroads, or future railroad mergers, could all have a major influence on the potential cost of implementing commuter service (and on train volumes through Frankfort)."

Apparently no one in Frankfort was paying attention.

After the opening of Logistics Park Chicago, in Elwood, IL, the EJ&E and BNSF successfully negotiated a trackage rights agreement that allows BNSF trains to operate between Eola and Joliet. The end result of these various deals was that traffic on portions of the EJ&E Railway, both east and west of Frankfort, has grown substantially in recent years.

An extraordinary amount of transport-related economic development has occurred in Will County near Frankfort in the last decade. The redevelopment of the Joliet Arsenal, from an abandoned military base and EPA Superfund Site, into a world class rail-served distribution center has made news around the world. This facility has also been a high-powered economic development engine bringing thousands of new jobs to Will County.

We wonder how many of these new transport-related jobs went to residents of Frankfort?

And while the US45/La Grange Road crossing of the BNSF mainline in downtown La Grange, IL is ranked as one of the absolute worst in the region, in terms of total vehicles delayed, the same US45 passes through Frankfort with virtually no delays since it uses a viaduct to cross under the EJ&E mainline.

Finally, under rules established by the Federal Railroad Administration at the direction of Congress, public authorities (like Frankfort) have the option to establish train horn quiet zones provided certain supplemental or alternative safety measures are in place. While Illinois Senator Dick Durbin helped to pass the enabling legislation for these rules, Congress has never adequately funded the Federal grade crossing program.