Monday, March 07, 2011
 
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High-speed rail meeting answers concerns for Logan County leaders

Part 1

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[March 07, 2011]  Last September a team of professionals representing the Illinois Department of Transportation, Interstate Commerce Commission and the Union Pacific Railroad hosted a meeting regarding high-speed rail in Logan County.

Those in attendance at that meeting may have walked away with the impression that no matter what, there were going to be railroad crossings permanently closed in Logan County when high-speed rail comes through.

However, in a meeting Friday morning at the Lincoln Park District, Michael Garcia, bureau chief of IDOT, told the audience there may have been a misperception. He drove home his point when he said, "If you say no, then it is no."

In a meeting that lasted just over two hours, Garcia began by introducing those who were in attendance and said that over the next two hours they would talk about what lies ahead with work scheduled to begin next month at Elkhart and continuing through Logan County.

"We do not want to build this behind black curtains," Garcia said. "You're going to be here, we're going to be here, the trains are going to be here. We want to talk about it."

Garcia said high-speed rail has actually been on the drawing table in Illinois since 2003. He said IDOT thought they were nearly ready five years ago but had a problem with an anti-collision system, in that they couldn't make it work.

Now, there is a system design that they believe will work, and they are in a good position to move forward.

Garcia said there were five grants applications for high-speed rail funding. In the end the state received three.

The most importation of those grants was the $1.1 billion for restructuring the current rail line from Alton to Chicago. A second grant was awarded for work to be done with what Garcia referred to as the spider web in Chicago.

A third grant application was filed seeking $3,000,000 for a second rail line. The federal government turned down that request but granted an alternative: $1.25 million for an environmental impact study to determine the need for a second line and the effects it will have on the communities it will pass through.

The $1.1 billion grant is broken down to include $570 million for the track renewal system, $50 million for stations, $220 million for locomotives and cars, $170 million for signals and crossings, and $130 million classified as "other."

The federal grant comes with a 5 percent IDOT match requirement. Garcia said that in the case of stations and parking, there may also be a local match involved, but at this time there is no solid information on how that might work.

Garcia said that when the grant was awarded it came with conditions. He referred to these as the "you betters" and said the first one was: "If we give you the money, you better build it."

The second was: "You better take care of it." Garcia said that IDOT had made a 20-year promise to the federal government to take care of the track and monitor the daily operations of the train system. If they fail to do this, they will be required to give the money back.

Another important part of the agreement involved the closure of crossings. Garcia said that the grant terms specifically say that local officials will have a say in this.

"A lot of people don't know that the Record of Decision, the actual issuance of the Federal Railroad Administration, says: ‘DOT, you will not close a single crossing without local approval,'" Garcia said. "If you say no, it is no."

He added: "That is not to say that we won't approach you with the option of a suitable negotiation to close or vacate a crossing and a suitable reimbursement for allowing that."

The reason the closing of crossings is important with high-speed rail is that from IDOT and ICC's perspective, the fewer opportunities that vehicles have to come in contact with trains, the better off the program will be.

When Michael Stead of the ICC spoke to the group, he drove home the serious concerns that he has with safety and the need to educate the public on what to expect when trains speeds increase from 79 miles per hour to 110 in rural areas.

Stead said that in the case of vehicle-versus-train accidents, 94 percent are due to driver error; in 25 percent of those accidents, the vehicle hits the side of the train; and 75 percent of the time these accidents happen during daylight hours.

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He said the ICC has an educational program ready to present to any group or organization, and he'd like to see it particularly used to inform young drivers.

He said that anyone who wants to know more about setting up an educational meeting should contact Chip Pew at 312-636-3034 or e-mail him at cpew@icc.illinois.gov.

The ICC and IDOT have several safety devices built into the new rail system. The current program calls for drop-arm signals at all crossings. These signals will block both lanes of traffic on both sides of the track, hopefully stopping people from trying the ever-dangerous "drive-around."

There is also a smart system involved with the crossings. For whatever reason a crossing is blocked, the system will send an alarm to the oncoming train, which will slow or stop if the crossing remains obstructed.

There will also be crossing arms at all roads, including private lanes and entrances into farmland.

The entrances into farmland will have gates that remain down at all times unless they are opened with a key system by the farmer needing entry.

When those gates are unlocked, they will remain open for a given amount of time. During that time they will close when a train is approaching and reopen when it has passed. Stead said that the length of time the gates will remain unlocked is yet to be determined, but once that time expires, the gates will close and lock themselves.

Garcia said another important thing they are looking at is safety for passengers boarding or exiting trains. If there are two tracks with freight and Amtrak running through the area at the same time, stations will include boarding platforms on both sides of the track.

To assure safety, pedestrian overpasses or underpasses will be built at the stations.

In other areas where pedestrian walkways intersect with tracks, there will be drop-arm gates similar to those used on roadways.

Still on the list of safety measures is the addition of fencing on both sides of the track in municipal areas.

The audience was told that an engineering consulting firm named Road Safe has been hired and will be responsible for relaying information daily to local agencies such as fire departments, police, emergency services and schools.

That firm will notify parties of temporary crossing closures as the track renewal train passes through the area and will provide daily updates on the official Illinois High-Speed Rail website, http://www.idothsr.org/.

___

Tomorrow, read new questions posed by local authorities representing the correctional centers, emergency services and the city of Lincoln.

[By NILA SMITH]

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