CSX and the CREATE program launch the first train over the Forest Hill Flyover. Also, CN’s Harvey Grain Facility is expanding capacity, enhancing safety, and opening new markets; Union Pacific (UP) hosts 200 customers in Omaha; Norfolk Southern (NS) installs new Gen-3 modems in locomotives; and Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s (CPKC) Wylie Mechanical Car team achieves 31 years injury-free.
If you think federal regulatory agencies—even federally owned Amtrak—have strayed from what former Southern Railway and Conrail CEO L. Stanley Crane termed, “stick to your knitting,” you’re not ridin’ the rails solo.
The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program has been awarded more than $290 million in USDOT grants for the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project (CIP), described as “the largest rail chokepoint
CN President and CEO Tracy Robinson earns the Canadian Business Leader of the Year award. Meanwhile, the Canadian Class I unveils a transload facility in Michigan and announces the ratification of a new collective agreement for Unifor-affiliated CNTL drivers. Also, Norfolk Southern (NS) and its CREATE Program partners mark their five-year commitment to STEM education in Chicago; and Union Pacific (UP) ranks on Fair360’s list of top companies for workplace fairness.
Officials broke ground on Oct. 25 on the largest CREATE project to date, The Forest Hill Flyover (P3), at CSX Forest Hill Railroad Yard.
The CREATE partners received a $12.9 million federal grant for the Pullman Junction project in the south Chicago communities of Burnside and Cottage Grove Heights.
BNSF Railway and the Chicago CREATE partners have completed BNSF Connection project (WA4), which established a new direct connection between BNSF’s Corwith and Cicero Yards, as well as between the CN Freeport Subdivision and the Western Avenue Corridor along which BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX and Union Pacific operate. Prior to WA4, freight trains had to travel longer, more indirect routings to make these connections, including long and potentially hazardous reverse moves.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Oct. 1 for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program’s 75th Street Corridor Improvements Project (75th St. CIP), at Forest Hill Junction.
Officials in the Windy City want to unwind the nation’s most complicated railroad labyrinth.
The CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency) partners—Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), Cook County, Association of American Railroads (AAR), Metra, Amtrak and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)—have received a $132 million U.S. Department of Transportation INFRA (Infrastructure For Rebuilding America) Grant for the $474 million 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project (CIP). This project will grade-separate several freight and passenger rail lines in Chicago’s Englewood, Auburn Gresham and West Chatham neighborhoods that currently intersect, creating significant delays and congestion.
