The Illinois Times
Letter to the Editor
Here are some of the problems with the agreement between the city and the Illinois Department of Transportation regarding relocating rail traffic off the Third Street tracks. Mayor Langfelder and the city council should have held out for a better agreement instead of voting passage on April 26.
The administration rushed the council to a vote with Mayor Langfelder initially giving the council only 24 hours to review the complicated agreement and then extending the time to eight days, less than the normal two weeks.
The railroads are not parties to the agreement and gave no commitments to the city to ever consolidate freight traffic onto 10th Street tracks. The city lost leverage with the railroads by making its agreement only with IDOT, thus allowing the railroads to later shift their terms and conditions at will.
The state has not appropriated funds to honor IDOT’s commitments, but IDOT’s proffer of funding in the agreement undercuts the prospects for gaining additional federal funds.
The city relied upon the advice of Hanson Engineering and its verbal representations that “the railroads are on board,” even though Hanson Engineering has different interests than the city and is being paid millions for 10th Street bridge work regardless of railroad relocation success. The city itself had little contact with the railroads in formulating the final agreement.
The city lost leverage and agreed to close five crossings on the Third Street tracks, including Jackson Street, which city planners had hoped to use as a corridor to link the Lincoln Home district to the State Capitol. The agreement offers the unlikely hope that the state would reopen these crossings in 2026 if trains fail to relocate.
The agreement falsely promotes itself as a timeline to completion by 2026 because it leaves out major elements. It neither funds the costly Norfolk and Southern rail yard relocation south of Cook Street, a prerequisite to freight consolidation, nor discusses the hugely expensive Union Pacific “flyover” south of Stanford which Union Pacific may want as a precondition to relocating its freight.
In summary, the agreement is incomplete, defective and fatally flawed. It may in fact doom the prospects of ever moving trains off the Third Street tracks.
Joe McMenamin
Alderman, Ward 7
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 