I’ve enjoyed blogging at wpgrr.com for nearly three years, but continuing spam issues and the apparent loss of image posting has soured me. So tonight, I launch a new transportation blog called PeoriaStation. The name suggests a railroad theme, but my interest in all things transportation past and present will be fodder for this blog.
Good transportation, whether by air, rail, river or truck, is vital to Greater Peoria and I will cover it. So I invite you to check in, read and post your comments.
- David P. Jordan
4 responses so far ↓
1
Billy Dennis
// Sep 18, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Welcome to The Blog Peoria Network. You’ve been a reliable “Transportation Pundit” for the old Peoria Pundit site. I’m very glad you decided to sign up with Blog Peoria.
As our population continues to leave the heart of the city, transportation issues will occupy more and more of our time and resources.
I took the liberty of doing the following:
1. Activating Akismet spam protection and deleting the two spam comments I found.
2. Deleting the original, generic “Welcome” post.
3. Setting the controls so that you will post under “David P. Jordan” rather than your user name.
If you have any other questions, just ask.
2
SD
// Sep 19, 2008 at 6:04 am
Congratulations David. I hope this is as enjoyable as your other Blog has been.
3
Mahkno
// Sep 20, 2008 at 4:50 am
I like reading your transportation stuff.
I have read about Canadian rail wanting to bypass Chicago. They have been getting steep resistance from the suburbs that they want to pass thru and operate in. I remembered how you pointed out that Peoria had an unusually high number of service corridors coming in and out of the area. Couldn’t Peoria try and lure some of this bypass southward?
4
David P. Jordan
// Sep 20, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Hi Mahkno,
CN’s plans to buy the Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway (see map at http://www.tstarinc.com/eje/map2.html) has hit a snag and is expected to fail (an EJ&E employee showed up at today’s railfair and sounded pretty confident the sale would not win federal approval).
With one unlikely exception I don’t see Peoria benefitting from failure to purchase the EJ&E. Take a look at CN’s route network (http://cn.akanda.com/cn). CN has long owned some rail mileage in the United States, but since 1999 has significantly expanded to include Illinois Central (lines south and west of Chicago) and Wisconsin Central (lines northwest of Chicago.
The synergy created by the expanded route network has increased business and operation of “run-through” trains between say, Flint, Michigan and Galesburg (with BNSF) and between Champaign, IL and Waterloo, IA and Champaign and Wisconsin and points in Western Canada.
Since these trains simply pass through Chicago, obtaining a bypass through acquisition of the EJ&E Railway would allow them to reduce transit times and train crew starts (many times it takes as long to get through Chicago as it does for a train to run between Chicago and Winnipeg!)
If CN fails to win federal approval to purchase the EJ&E, then they may simply seek “trackage rights” on that railroad, and pay for upgrades to handle the increased train traffic. Trackage rights would also require STB approval but would have a better chance than outright purchase.
If that doesn’t happen, CN will probably maintain the status quo. There are options that might benefit Peoria (trackage/haulage rights on BNSF between Peoria and Superior, WI could be useful for some north-south traffic for example – CN already has “haulage rights” on BNSF between East Dubuque, IL and Peoria for Iowa to Decatur grain trains), but I don’t see them as any thing but remote.
Historically, Peoria served as a alternative to Chicago for rail freight moving between east and west rather than north and south.
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