TRAC Asks Surface Transportation Board to Penalize Canadian National for Its Under-Reporting to the Board on Grade Crossing Blockages
TRAC Points Out That This Is Not The Only Issue On Which CN Has Failed To Be Wholly Truthful
CHICAGO, June 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In response to the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) investigation of CN's under-reporting of grade crossing delays on the EJ&E rail line, the TRAC Coalition has submitted comments to the STB urging it to penalize the railroad for misleading the agency and the public on this critical safety issue. In the comments that were filed on May 28, 2010, TRAC made the case that:
- The record shows that CN's reporting on the issue had been a willful effort to mislead the STB and flout the agency's known interests in monitoring all blockages of railroad crossings that exceed 10 minutes in duration;
- The blockage issue isn't the only issue in which CN has been misleading, and that CN has a record of picking and choosing what it tells Congress and shares with the STB at any given stage both pre and post transaction approval;
- The public expects that strong action will be taken by the STB to protect the communities that are located along the EJ&E by strictly interpreting and enforcing all of the conditions that it imposed on CN; and,
- It is time for the STB to shift future auditing responsibilities away from HDR and to a truly independent company or the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as a means of assuring the public that CN's hand-chosen "watchdog" cannot continue in its conflicted position of auditing a company that has paid it tens of millions of dollars through the course of the EJ&E transaction.
TRAC co-chair and Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner says, "In order to protect our residents' interests, local governments under the TRAC umbrella have been forced to take on the expensive and unfunded mandate of providing adequate oversight of this transaction. Enough is enough. Our congressional delegation needs to demand that the federal government independently audit the mitigation and implementation of this transaction. It is absurd to continue to rely on the engineering firm CN paid to justify the approval of this transaction to now act as a watchdog over CN.
In addition to shifting auditing responsibility, TRAC makes the case that the STB needs to assure public trust by imposing additional penalties on CN. The actions that TRAC has recommended that the Board take include:
- Extending the oversight period by at least one year;
- Imposing a formal "litigation hold" on all records referenced in the TRAC comments;
- Requiring that CN provide in its ongoing reports data relevant to slow orders as a means of insuring that the crossing blockage problem is not resolved by compromising safety;
- Requiring that CN underwrite the full costs of a process for determining whether the assumptions about the environmental impacts of the transaction that preceded approval are actually proving accurate in practice; and,
- Instituting field monitoring to measure noise and vibration as part of the STB's December 2009 promise to TRAC to undertake a comprehensive monitoring plan on two issues that strongly impact the quality of life along the EJ&E.
"Decisive actions by the STB at this juncture will send a strong message to CN and the railroad industry that the STB is capable of regulating the industry in a way that facilitates rail operations but requires respect for the interests of impacted communities," notes Barrington Village President and TRAC Co-Chair Karen Darch. "We were promised certain protections by the STB—protections that we continue to view as grossly inadequate -- however, we expect the STB to enforce those conditions fully."
To view a copy of the May 28, 2010 TRAC filing on the grade crossing blockage issue, 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)
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