After a two-year study, a blue ribbon committee commissioned by Amtrak finally has issued its plan for relieving rail gridlock in the Chicago region.
Thanks to its location at the geographic heart of the nation, Chicago has always been a transportation center. But the amount of rail traffic flowing through the area has increased, slowing the transport of both passengers and cargo, according to the Amtrak’s Gateway Blue Ribbon panel.
‘Inadequate Infrastructure’
“In recent years, Chicago rail operations have experienced recurring, long-term gridlock,” the panel reported in its report. “The major causes are increased demands for rail service, inadequate infrastructure not designed to accommodate current operation, and limited operational coordination among Chicago’s 10 separately-operated freight and passenger railroads.”
Chicago’s rail network currently is operating at “unacceptable levels”, according to the committee. The result is recurring and increasingly severe crises that paralyze rail service nationwide.
“Unless additional actions to improve Chicago rail network infrastructure and operations begin immediately, Chicago’s rail service will continue to deteriorate,” the committee reported. “Rail passengers and shippers will suffer increasing delays.”
One Bad Snowstorm Away from Disaster
Chicago’s rail network — and, consequently, the country’s — are only a single severe snowstorm away from paralyzing rail traffic, which could have a disastrous effect on the supply chain.
To combat this, the panel proposed a seven-point plan to alleviate the growing congestion on Chicago area rail lines:
- Real-time operational coordination among Chicago’s railroads, including coordinated dispatching between all 10 rail lines.
- The passenger rail line Amtrak and other railroads need to continue efforts to improve operational performance within its terminal at Chicago’s Union Station
- More funding for vital projects to produce more significant benefits to passenger rail lines
- The completion of the proposed Chicago Region Environment and Transporation Efficiency (CREATE) program that called for the construction of flyovers and additional tracks in the 75th Street corridor region and the West Side’s Grand Crossing area.
- Construction of a separate passenger rail corridor between Chicago and Porter, Indiana, to complete the last leg of a high-speed rail line connecting Chicago and Detroit
- Amtrak and freight railroads should expand the RRIF Loan program to fund improvements to operational performance
- The various rail companies need to team up to improve the environmental review process before beginning new infrastructure construction projects
Running on 19th Century Infrastructure
The report notes that much of Chicago’s rail infrastructure is more than 100 years old and needs to be modernized.
But while the report proposes some bold initiatives, it doesn’t include ways to pay the price tag, which likely would be billions of dollars. Yet the panel says that the cost of not moving forward with these improvements will create additional burdens on the economy, costing many billions more in freight and passenger delays and congestion.
“The $3.6 billion in public benefits projected from completion of the remaining CREATE projects will never be realized,” the report states. “Instead, there will be a huge negative impact on national, regional and local economies that are heavily dependent on Chicago’s rail network.”
The four-person panel was commissioned by Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman in 2014 to offer recommendations for improving traffic flow and alleviating gridlock. Its report was based on interviews with freight and passenger rail line executives; federal, state and local government officials; and transportation policy experts.