WASHINGTON — A group of Glenview, Ill., residents who helped block efforts to expand Amtrak Hiawatha service between Chicago and Milwaukee has told the Surface Transportation Board it opposes Metra’s request for a new connecting track in the community to offset possible negative impacts of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger.
In a letter filed with the board on Monday, Nov. 7, the Glenview ACTION Committee (the capital letters stand for Alliance to Control Train Impacts on Our Neighborhood) says it opposes “in the strongest terms possible” the Metra proposal for a new connection at the A-20 interlocking as a condition to the merger.
Currently, at A-20, a two-track connection from the Union Pacific funnels down to a single track where it joins the Metra/Canadian Pacific line. Metra has proposed “a new connection at A-20 to allow parallel moves to new extended connecting tracks” in Sept. 28 testimony to the STB, the Glenview group’s letter notes.
The Glenview group apparently sees this as a new attempt to build a 10,000-foot siding, the Glenview Holding Track, that it objected to previously, citing concerns about noise, pollution, and a possible increase in rail traffic [see “Glenview, Ill., budgets more money to fight expansion …,” Trains News Wire, April 10, 2019].
Those objections ultimately led the state of Illinois to withdraw its support for the siding project [see “Illinois DOT bows to opposition …,” News Wire, May 13, 2019]. This, in turn, torpedoed efforts to increase Hiawatha service, because Canadian Pacific’s agreement to the increased frequencies was contingent on a full set of upgrades [see “CP puts damper on plan for more ‘Hiawathas,’” News Wire, July 29, 2019]
Interesting, the Glenview group voices no opposition to the CP-KCS merger itself, even though Metra has contended the merger could lead to more CP trains through Glenview. This is because the commuter operator says CP’s Marquette Subdivision — the main north-south line between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Kansas City — will be “overburdened, likely requiring [CP] to reroute trains over Metra’s lines.” CP has disagreed with this contention.
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