Coal dust, exhaust fumes, the effect on emergency response times and the potential for derailments or chemical spills were just some of the concerns voiced by residents who packed a Monday community forum about proposed projects along the Amtrak Hiawatha line.
The Glenview forum was held in the midst of plans from the Illinois and Wisconsin departments of transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration to increase service on the Amtrak Hiawatha line, which runs from Chicago to Milwaukee and stops in Glenview, from seven to 10 daily round trips, according to the project’s draft environmental assessment.
The agencies state that expanding Hiawatha service will address near capacity and over capacity conditions on peak time trains, give passengers more train time options “to meet existing and future passenger demand,” and address “inadequate service reliability” because of conflicts with freight and other passenger traffic in the corridor, according to the assessment.
“Ridership has been steadily increasing and there is growing demand for more public transportation options in the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor. The current service is limited in its ability to meet this demand,” said Arun Rao, of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
The proposal includes an option to build either a 10,000-foot freight train holding track on the east side of the two existing Metra train tracks or an 11,000-foot freight train holding track on the west side of the existing tracks from Glenview to Northbrook to make room for freight traffic along the same rail corridor.
If approved, the project will receive $195 million in federal funding, said Jeff Brady, Glenview’s director of community development.
Shortly after the draft environmental assessment was released, the Glenview Board of Trustees passed a resolution opposing the findings in the assessment. The village cited three concerns: the alleged need to increase Hiawatha service by three round trips, short-term solutions proposed to accommodate rail traffic and environmental impacts.
To build the freight train holding track, a 20-foot retaining wall would need to be built to hold the rail bed, Brady said. Building the retaining wall would mean the green space that provides a buffer between the nearby residential areas and the existing tracks would be cut down, he said.
Two new single-track bridges would also have to be built, one of which would cross Shermer Road, Brady said. Residents and officials have raised concerns about the bridges because in 2012 a train derailed on the bridge above Shermer Road, killing a Glenview couple.
The holding track would be built near the Regency at Glen Villas Pulte Homes, Sunset Memorial Lawns, Glenlake Estates and The Willows neighborhoods, Brady said. It would also cause traffic delays on West Lake Avenue, near NorthShore University HealthSystem Glenbrook Hospital and Glenbrook South High School, as freight trains stop and start back up, he said.
Village officials and residents are concerned that the additional round trips are scheduled for before and after rush hour, which does not seem to address Amtrak’s concern about over crowding on Hiawatha trains during peak travel times, Brady said. Residents and officials have said that Hiawatha trains appear mostly empty when they pass Glenview.
“In Glenview, residents don’t need an environmental assessment to see that. We sit on Glenview Road and watch empty Amtrak cars roll by,” said Dave Rahija, a member of the community-led Citizens for Alliance to Control Train Impacts in Our Neighborhoods, at the forum.
Rahija, who works at Glenbrook Hospital, said he is concerned that the holding track will cause delays for first responders and residents traveling to the hospital. Instead of increasing service, Amtrak should add more train cars to the existing Hiawatha trains and not build a freight train holding track, he said.
“Building freight train parking in the middle of our community does not make sense fiscally. It does not make sense environmentally. It does not make sense for the health and safety of our community. The need can be met by adding a few cars to an existing train line during peak times,” Rahija said.
Glenbrook High Schools District 225 Board of Education President Skip Shein said the district opposes the project because it will cause traffic delays for community members coming to and leaving Glenbrook South High School. The district also has concerns on the health impacts of having freight trains near a school, which was not addressed in the environmental assessment, he said.
“The environmental assessment is focused on the Hiawatha, but the environmental impact should be focused on trains on the freight side of this because that’s where the real impact is to our organization,” Shein said.
The agencies involved are working on a capacity analysis, “which evaluates how freight would potentially utilize the new infrastructure projects” as well as noise and vibration, safety and air quality where freight trains wait for signals, Rao said in the email.
“Detail on future freight operations and the commodities that freight trains carry over a route are proprietary information of the freight company and not easily predicted,” he said in the email.
Gary Dubofsky, who lives in The Willows neighborhood and is a member of the ACTION Committee, said he lives behind the two existing train tracks where the holding track is proposed to be built. In the 18 years he has lived in his home, freight trains went from moving quickly through the area to stopping and starting, he said.
Dubofsky also said the air pollution from the freight trains will have a negative impact on the residents who live near the tracks as the freight trains emit coal dust and exhaust.
“(The agencies involved) have completely glossed over all of these concerns in their preliminary environmental assessment all in their effort to increase their service, increase their efficiencies and all at the expense of the safety and the quality of our life in our communities,” Dubofsky said.
Lake Forest officials and residents have the same concerns that Glenview residents and officials have expressed because the project proposes building a freight train holding track in Lake Forest as well, said JoAnn Desmond, a member of the Lake Forest ACTION Committee. In Lake Forest, the proposed holding track will cut through the Middlefork Savanna, a 687 acre ecosystem, which would be threatened by the pollution from the trains, she said.
Glenview officials anticipate that a revised environmental assessment will be released in April and that it will address the concerns of village officials, residents and legislators have raised about the proposed freight train holding track and proposed track switch installed along the tracks in Glenview, Brady said.
Village officials have heard from the agencies involved in the project that a second public meeting will be held after the revised environmental assessment is release, Brady said. A date has not been confirmed yet, but village officials anticipate it will be held in April or May, he said.
The project is scheduled to be reviewed and approved this summer, Brady said.
akukulka@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @AKukulka11
