Local Elected Officials Fed Up with CSX Parking Trains and Blocking Crossings

Evergreen Park and Mt. Greenwood residents who’ve watched their quality of neighborhood life deteriorate due to blocked train crossings, idling trains and pedestrian safety problems may get some relief.

Sen. Bill Cunningham, along with state representatives Fran Hurley and Kelly Burke, Chicago Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) and Evergreen Park Mayor Jim Sexton are demanding accountability from CSX Transport Company, which owns the stretch of track known as the Elsdon that runs east of Kedzie Avenue.

This time, however, the local elected officials are appealing to U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk, as well as Congressmen Dan Lipinski and Bobby Rush, to use some of their congressional clout to hold CSX accountable and bring relief to area residents.

In a letter penned to the Illinois Congressional Delegation, Cunningham and the other local elected officials accuse CSX of failing to complete with at least 14 “mitigation measures” imposed on the railroad by federal regulators.

CSX owns two rail lines -- the Blue Island Spur that runs mostly parallel to Rockwell Avenue through West Beverly -- and the Elsdon line, which runs through Blue Island and Mt. Greenwood, and loops west through Evergreen Park over 95th Street, and Kedzie and 94th Street. The 95th Street crossing is especially a concern because it is a main ambulance route to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Cunningham and his colleagues are urging the federal government to sanction CSX with fines or more strenuous regulations.

“It’s a long odyssey,” Cunningham said. “The main issues, first and foremost, are slow moving and stopped trains blocking intersections.”

There is also train parking on a mile-long stretch of street-level rail between 103rd and 111th streets. Cunningham says there are no grade crossings east of Ridge Country Club and Mt. Greenwood.

“If one of the train yards is too crowded or other train traffic is crossing the [Elsdon] line, the trains will park there,” Cunningham said. “It happens mostly at night. On the west side of tracks is an all residential area and Keller School … Sometimes the trains are there for hours pumping smoke and noise in the neighborhood.”

While most of the residents who purchased homes near there counted on trains rumbling by, “but not a train parking lot,” Cunningham said.

Part of the problem is that municipalities no longer have the power to ticket trains when they block grade crossings for longer than ten minutes, or sit idle on tracks.

Rail traffic is regulated by the federal Surface Transportation Board, the same agency that approved CSX’s acquisition of the Elsdon line from Canadian National Railway in 2013.

“The frustrating thing for us is that any solutions we propose to CSX don’t have much teeth,” Cunningham said. “One of the mitigating factors is if a train is blocking a grade crossing for longer than ten minutes, CSX is supposed to break the train to allow traffic to go through the crossing. Evergreen Park and Chicago police tell us that has never been done.”

Gates that go down and stay down when there is no train and signs at crossings with the transport company’s phone number are so small they can’t be seen, let alone read, from a car, the state senator said.

The worst, Cunningham said, was watching St. John Fisher students climbing between freight cars when a CSX train was stopped one morning at the 103rd Street crossing.

CSX has promised to move a scheduled train off the Elsdon line, which runs just east of Kedzie Avenue, but Cunningham is concerned that this is just a continuation of the long back and forth that has occurred with CSX.

“CSX is a behemoth structure. They look at it as a minor nuisance but it’s not a minor nuisance to us,” Cunningham said. “Repeatedly, we receive assurances that the problems will diminish and we are continually facing the same issues. Moving one or two trains isn’t going to fix the problem.”

Area residents, ambulance drivers and concerned parents can call CSX at 1-877-835-5279 to report downed gates, stuck trains, idling trains or children climbing between freight cars at blocked crossings trying to get to school on time.