TRAC Asks Surface Transportation Board to Focus on Canadian National Railway's Gate Malfunctions at April 28 Oral Hearing

Based on Board's Report that Some Grade Crossing Delays are Caused by Malfunctioning Gates

CHICAGO, April 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In anticipation of the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) oral hearing in which CN has been ordered to explain under-reported grade crossing delays on the EJ&E rail line, local leaders that make up the TRAC Coalition sent the following letter to the Board's Chairman Daniel Elliott:  

We are pleased that the Board will be conducting a hearing on April 28, 2010 in order to allow a more complete review of blocked crossing data.  While this hearing will address many issues of great importance to the communities along the EJ&E rail line, we would respectfully request that the Board focus on one of the HDR-identified causal factors of the crossed blockings issue:  malfunctioning grade crossing equipment.  

In its April 14, 2010 Task 3 Train Volumes and Street Blockages Memorandum to the Board, HDR notes that CN had not been reporting crossing delays when "the grade-crossing signal system had activated but no train was actually present."  As you know from prior TRAC communications, there has been a pattern of incidents with grade crossing malfunctions, including the tragic incident on the CN rail line in University Park just 10 days ago.  

In TRAC's October 14, 2009 letter to the Surface Transportation Board, among other issues expressed, we raised a concern about two gate crossing incidents that had occurred in June and July of 2009.  These two incidents occurred at the EJ&E crossing at Shoe Factory Road in Hoffman Estates, Illinois within three days of each other.  The incidents were reported to TRAC and the Board through the TRAC website's complaint registration mechanism.  We are providing the verbatim information shared with TRAC and the Board last summer as the two occurrences are eerily similar to what appears to have occurred in University Park on April 16.

June 28 at 10:00 pm: Heading west on Shoe Factory Road from Route 59 -- train approaching intersection from the north side of Shoe Factory Road.  We felt alarmed and endangered for our lives when we noticed the train was bearing down on intersection about 200 feet away -- yet the gates were still up.  We were traveling at the speed limit -- so did not have time to stop.  Within 10 seconds of clearing intersection the gates were lowered.  Somebody MUST MUST look into this.  There is a definite malfunction.  I will now stop like the school buses do before I cross the tracks.  

July 1 at 9:00 pm: For the second time in two days -- the gates are coming down almost too late the crossing.  Train was approaching the crossing at Shoe Factory Road -- we were traveling east on Shoe Factory Road towards 59.  Train was coming fast from the north -- gates were still up but the train was approx two hundred feet away.  SCARED TO DEATH!! Once we passed over the crossing -- the gates were lowered.  I have lived here for three years and have not noticed this to be a problem until very recently.  

Since the facts presented to the Board over six months ago deal with gate activation malfunctions, and that such malfunctions are noted by HDR as occurring in some of the cases for which CN has failed to report blocked crossings, we request that you ask CN to explain how it deals generally with gate maintenance issues.  Specifically, CN should provide to the Board documentation that indicates where gate malfunctions have occurred on the EJ&E for the last year; how frequently regular maintenance has been performed on all EJ&E crossing activation equipment; and explain to what extent it has failsafe procedures in place to minimize risks stemming from crossing gate malfunctions.  

We know that the Surface Transportation Board, as well as the Federal Rail Administration, shares our community concern about safety.  Therefore, we hope that you will make this concern a priority on Wednesday, as this is of timely and utmost concern to the region's residents.  

To view a copy of the October 14, 2009 letter referenced in this communication to Chairman Elliott and other TRAC communications to the Board, visit  www.fightrailcongestion.com.

About TRAC:  TRAC (The Regional Answer to Canadian National) is a coalition of suburban leaders that have joined forces to ensure the quality of life of more than one million residents in numerous Chicagoland communities is not adversely impacted by the CN/EJ&E issue. TRAC includes municipal and county leaders from Lake, Cook, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and Will Counties. Barrington Communities Against CN Rail Congestion (BCACRC) represents the interests of Barrington area communities and is an active member of TRAC.

SOURCE TRAC (The Regional Answer to Canadian National)