‘DDKN’ the ‘Textbook Definition of NIMBY’

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

A perhaps little-known bit of railroad trivia is that, according to a reliable industry source, Illinois Senator and Majority Whip Dick Durbin held the late E. Hunter Harrison in extreme contempt (that’s a polite way of saying “hated”), and the feeling was mutual.

Durbin and many of his fellow Illinois Democrats in the Chicago region provide “a textbook definition of NIMBY,” opined my source. That is, they’ll support a freight railroad, or its plans to increase traffic (thereby taking trucks off the highway and reducing air pollution) as long as it isn’t operating within a medium-range missile’s trajectory of their communities.

Durbin probably had his first run-in with EHH and his straight, take-no-political-prisoners approach, when Hunter was running the Illinois Central. Such hostile encounters probably continued when Hunter ran CN, CP, and finally CSX, all which touch Chicagoland in some significant way. Durbin’s “I’ll always dislike that guy” grudge appears to continue nearly five years after Hunter’s death, as evidenced by his attempt to throw a Monkey Pox wrench into the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger. 

During last year’s CP vs. CN battle for KCS, during meetings with key people from all three railroads (depending upon which transaction was in play at the time), Durbin reportedly was “arrogant and unfriendly,” stating very clearly that the likelihood of him supporting any merger had a snowball’s chance in Yosemite National Park of happening. Now, the railroad-flogging Majority Whip has turned up the heat by teaming with fellow NIMBYism practitioners Sen. Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Marie Newman—collectively, “DDKN”—in a letter to the Surface Transportation Board opposing the CPKC transaction (which, I’d like to point out, rapidly received STB approval last year for its voting trust, and for consideration under pre-2001 merger rules).

Citing “concerns about noise pollution, blocked crossings, safety conditions and commuter rail delays,” DDKN said CPKC “would significantly impact Chicagoland’s already highly-trafficked railways,” stating that it “will reportedly more than triple freight rail traffic on the CP rail line (Elgin Subdivision, the 23-mile western-most part of Metra’s Milwaukee District West Line) that runs between Bensenville and Elgin, Ill. We are concerned this increase will have significant impacts on noise, emergency response time, commuter rail operations, the environment, and pedestrian safety … The proposed merger will have significant impacts on communities in Illinois, with CP projecting the merger could add between eight and 11 freight trains per day on its tracks that run through Chicago’s western suburbs … Since CP’s initial filing, Metra and a coalition of Illinois communities—including DuPage County, Bartlett, Bensenville, Elgin, Itasca, Hanover Park, Roselle, Wood Dale and Schaumburg—have filed comments with the STB opposing the merger as currently proposed.” The “coalition” is the Coalition to Stop CPKC (unless they get $9.5 billion worth of train tracks).

Now, let’s see what’s really going on, operating-wise, on the CP Elgin Subdivision: 

Metra currently operates 40 trains per day on the triple- and double-tracked Milwaukee District West Line, roughly fewer than two per hour, on the entire line out of Chicago. Between Chicago and Bensenville Yard, the CP freight train increase, according to the CPKC STB filing, would be exactly zero. CP currently operates three trains per day on the Elgin Subdivision, west of Bensenville Yard. If—and only if—CP adds eight trains per day on that line, that’s one every three hours—not a heavy lift, operationally. Three more, or 11 per day, is operationally insignificant, in my humble opinion. The existing infrastructure should be able to easily handle a handful of additional freight trains. Take a look at the track diagram:

Here is CP’s statement on the situation:

“CP has made a significant proposal to the [Coalition to Stop CPKC] based on the modest changes proposed to the commuter and freight rail corridor that already hosts 40 to 60 trains a day, and has historically hosted more freight trains than are proposed here. In response, the coalition repeated its original demand for up to $9.5 billion to ‘attempt to protect’ the communities from being ‘literally shut down.’ The coalition demand is widely out of proportion. It is double the entire CREATE Program—a public-private partnership that is investing $4.6 billion in 70 different vital projects across the entire Chicago railroad network to mitigate roughly 1,300 daily trains. Still, CP remains prepared to continue our discussions with suburban communities. CP has successfully worked with other communities anticipating freight train traffic increases to address their concerns, including reaching agreement with suburban Hampshire. We continue to work in similar fashion with a number of communities.”

Will DDKN’s letter to fellow Chicagoan Marty Oberman affect the merger proceedings? Will it hold any real weight? If it does, it’s only because Durbin is one of the most powerful politicians on Capitol Hill. The STB is supposed to be immune from undue political influence, and smart enough to differentiate nonsensical local NIMBY demands from the facts. It seems improbable that the STB would base its decision on a small potatoes issue—small potatoes compared to creating a transnational railway operating in three nations. Let’s hope that’s the case, going forward.