June 20, 2016

The Honorable Bruce Rauner, Governor

State of Illinois
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
The Honorable Daniel R. Elliott III, Chairman
United States Surface Transportation Board
395 E Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20423
Re: Illinois Tollway Authority/CPs Bensenville Yard
Gentlemen:
I am writing to call your attention to efforts by the Illinois Tollway Authority (the Tollway) to build
an expressway through a major railyard in the Chicago Terminal, an endeavor that exceeds the
Tollways authority and threatens local jobs, the North American rail network and perhaps the
national economy.
Bensenville Yard (the Yard) is Canadian Pacifics (CP)1 major terminal in Chicago, and a critical
component in maintaining fluidity at North Americas busiest and most congested rail hub, where
six of the seven major freight railroads meet and exchange traffic.
The continued growth and vitality of the national economy depends on the ability of railroads to
meet current and future demand. Approximately 25 percent of all rail freight traffic travels through
Chicago every day. As for CP, approximately 22 percent of all our traffic passes through Chicago,
and approximately 47 percent of all of our interchange traffic is exchanged with other railroads at
Chicago.
Demand for rail service continues to grow. Freight volumes are expected to double by 2025. To
meet the demand, current and future, railroads need capacity. Yet efforts to add capacity
building new rail lines and expanding existing rail yardsare typically met with such strong local
opposition that it is virtually impossible to achieve expansion to physical capacity in todays
environment. In addition, units of local and state government increasingly seek to encroach on
railroad right of way for various projects, and passenger and commuter rail services seek to add
service, all of which erodes freight capacity.
This situation is now playing out in real time for Illinois and CP regarding Bensenville Yard in
Chicago. The Tollway is currently constructing a new east-west expressway to the western
1

Canadian Pacific (CP) is a trade name under which Canadian Pacific Railway Companys United States subsidiaries, Soo
Line Railroad Company, Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad Corporation, and Delaware and Hudson Railway
Company, Inc. operate. The Yard is owned and operated by Soo Line Railroad Company.

Honorable Bruce Rauner

Honorable Daniel R. Elliott, III
June 20, 2016
Page 2
perimeter of OHare Airport. There, the new expressway will split into a northern leg and a
southern leg. The Tollway plans for the southern leg to proceed through CPs Bensenville Yard,
which is located just south of OHare Airport, connecting on the opposite side of the Yard to
another expressway, I-294. The Tollway also plans for a secondary road to bisect the Yard.
Bensenville Yard is our railroads only classification and intermodal yard at this critical gateway
today. Unlike other types of commercial property, such as a warehouse for instance, active rail
yards cannot be reproduced down the street. Railroad operating property is not fungible.
If the Tollway were to build an expressway through the Yard it would significantly impact existing
rail operations, severely limit our ability to reconfigure the remaining track and facilities, and would
permanently prevent future use and capacity. Claims that the Tollways design will have a light
touch on Yard operations are false and misleading.
We have tried to engage the Tollway in an effort to reach a workable alternative or
accommodation. We have also informed the Tollway that state condemnation of railroad operating
property is foreclosed by federal law (the 1995 Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act)
which vests exclusive jurisdiction regarding such matters with the federal Surface Transportation
Board. Our efforts in this regard have not been successful.
Alternative alignments for the new expressway exist, but the Tollway has refused to consider them.
Instead, the Tollway is moving forward and aggressively building on both sides of the Yard in an
effort to squeeze CP politically and force an agreement for their design through the Yard. We
believe such an effort is wasting millions of dollars of tollway user money given that the alignment
through the Yard is federally pre-empted.
The Tollway appears to view this as a local matter involving potential access to OHare Airport from
the west at some point, potential development of hotels and facilities on the western side of the
airport if that aspirational access comes about, re-direction of traffic around the airport, and
minimal impact on the nearby community of Bensenville.
From CPs standpoint, the matter is both local and national. CP has 291 employees in Illinois whose
annual salary and benefits total $26.4 million. Those jobs, salaries and tax revenues are at risk if we
agree to the Tollways design through the Yard, and are not able to provide rail service at current
levels or meet future needs. From a national perspective, the greater Chicago Terminal is
constrained already. Gridlock at Chicago is a real and constant threat. As we saw in the winter of
2013/2014, a surge in rail traffic together with unusually severe winter weather in the Midwest
produced gridlock in the Chicago Terminal that cascaded throughout the national rail network,
creating service disruptions that lasted for months. To reduce current rail capacity in Chicago, the
heart of the national network, and permanently foreclose future capacity, would be unwise and
unnecessary. A reduction of capacity at our only Yard in Chicago is not something we can agree to.
We will continue to try to find a solution, if possible, that will satisfy our needs and those of the
Tollway. We believe that sound planning and good government indicate that the Tollway should
develop alternative designs that do the same.

Honorable Bruce Rauner

Honorable Daniel R. Elliott, III
June 20, 2016
Page 3
Sincerely,

Keith Creel,
President and Chief Operating Officer
cc:

Mr. Robert Schillerstrom, Chairman, Illinois Tollway Authority

The Honorable Mark Kirk, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Dick Durbin, U.S. Senate
The Honorable John Thune, Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S.
Senate
The Honorable Bill Nelson, Ranking Member, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
U.S. Senate
The Honorable Bill Shuster, Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. House of
Representatives
The Honorable Peter DeFazio, Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S.
House of Representatives
Illinois Congressional Delegation
Illinois State Legislative Leadership
The Honorable Deb Miller, Vice-Chair, Surface Transportation Board
The Honorable Ann Begeman, Commissioner, Surface Transportation Board