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Abboud: Railway could impact traffic
Oct 11, 2007
Regan Foster rfoster@nwherald.com
Northwest Herald
Pertains to EJ&E, Barrington Hills, Barrington
BARRINGTON HILLS - More trains rolling through Lake and northern Cook Counties could have a significant impact on the environment, character and traffic of southern McHenry County, a local leader said Wednesday.

Robert Abboud, president of Barrington Hills and a Democratic candidate for the 16th District U.S. Congressional seat, said he was concerned that a Canadian National Railway plan to buy much of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway would have a negative impact on the area.

About 6½ miles of track pass through the village, Abboud said, and the lines physically cross Algonquin Road in his community.

"Those trains are going somewhere and they're going to locations that are unusually sensitive from the perspective of traffic and the environment and frankly [from] community character," Abboud said. "That line cuts through Barrington and Barrington Hills."

"While we're handling a couple of trains a day, that's no big deal. If you suddenly say we're going to do 15 times that many trains, this is a huge deal."

Canadian National Railway announced in September that it planned to buy a large portion of the line, which runs in a large arc from Waukegan to Joliet, northeastern Indiana and South Chicago.

Jim Kvedaras, spokesman for the Canadian National Railway, said it was too soon to tell how many more trains could be chugging along the tracks. An application detailing the merger was slated to be sent to the Surface Transportation Board - a federal regulatory agency that reviews railroad mergers - at the end of the month, Kvedaras said.

"I don't have any good details as to how many more trains are going to come through the communities," Kvedaras said, adding that the board can take six months or more to review an application. "My operating guys have not completed their analysis."

While the tracks don't enter McHenry County, they do cross several roads that can act as portals to the county, including Route 14 in Barrington and Algonquin Road.

And that worries those villages' leaders.

"It's obviously an item of great interest," Barrington Village President Karen Darch said. "We're trying to be ready to respond with all the information of the local impact it will have, not only on Barrington but also on the surrounding communities."

But Kvedaras said the purchase was good not just for the company, but for transportation in the Chicago area as a whole.

"This is just one small way to relieve some of the pressure on the system in the immediate area," he said.

   
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