A memo released on Wednesday highlights significant freight interference on Metra’s Milwaukee District-West Line and is being used to caution federal regulators against approving a merger between two large freight railroad companies that will bring an influx of freight trains to the Chicago region.
The seven-page memo released by U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., outlines how Canadian Pacific Railway has violated an agreement to give Metra trains priority over freight trains during busy hours which caused delays between 2017 and 2021.
Krishnamoorthi has cautioned regulators about approving the merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern for some time and has called for an independent environmental impact study of how the merger would impact the Chicago region.
Metra’s MD-W line, which runs from Elgin to Union Station, would be most affected by the merger and will see an increase from three freight trains per day to 11 per day, according to Metra and Canadian Pacific.
The three daily freight trains already cause regular delays, and an increase in the number of trains without any investments in separate grade crossings would only hurt Metra’s service, Krishnamoorthi said.
Metra owns the MD-W line, but Canadian Pacific has dispatching rights, meaning it decides which trains receive preferential treatment in the flow of traffic. An agreement between Metra and Canadian Pacific grants passenger trains priority during peak hours, but the freight company has repeatedly violated that agreement by favoring its trains, Metra says.
The memo, which relies on Metra data, found that freight interference has been the leading cause of service delays on MD-W lines for the last decade. Specifically, there were 122 delays on average each year — with 27% of those happening during peak times — between 2017 and 2021.
Those delays were more than 12 minutes during peak times and more than 13 minutes at non-peak times.
In addition, the annual “frequency” of MD-W delays caused by freight interference nearly tripled between 2017 and 2021, with more of these delays occurring during peak periods. There were 54 delays, with 10 during peak hours, in 2017, and those delays grew to 154 total delays, with 58 during peak hours, by 2021.
During that same time, the total annual duration of MD-W delays caused by freight interference nearly tripled from 688 minutes in 2017 to 1,991 minutes in 2021. Those delays were nearly six times longer during peak times, from 127 minutes in 2017 to 745 minutes in 2021.
“These delays will only worsen with this merger as proposed,” Krishnamoorthi said Wednesday at a news conference in Union Station. “Those three freight trains per day is causing this much havoc in terms of delays to commuters. Imagine what will happen when it goes from three freight trains per day to, as Canadian Pacific has already told us, 11 freight trains.”
Krishnamoorthi has called on regulators to allow an independent environmental impact study on how the merger would affect the Chicago region.
“Metra is very concerned about commuter safety on our Milwaukee West Line because [Canadian Pacific] controls and dispatches freight and passenger train movements,” said Kevin McCann, Metra’s chief operating officer. “Too frequently [Canadian Pacific] sends its freight trains down Metra tracks when and where passenger trains are scheduled to pick up and drop off commuters.”
This, McCann said, creates unsafe conditions for commuters as idle freight trains block passengers from accessing platforms. In one case, a person crawled under an idle freight train so he could get to the Metra station.
“Adding additional freight trains will only make this more challenging,” McCann said.
A spokesman for Canadian Pacific said the memo somewhat exaggerates the impact of freight interference on passenger trains on the MD-W line.
More than 17,000 trains use the MD-W line each year, according to its pre-pandemic schedule, meaning that 122 delays a year is the equivalent of about 0.7% of all trains.
“With the focus properly on whether [Canadian Pacific’s] anticipated additional freight trains west of Bensenville will impact Metra, the evidence makes abundantly clear that there is no basis for concern,” said Patrick Waldron, spokesman for Canadian Pacific. “Extensive operating slots are available on the high-capacity double track west of Bensenville to accommodate the growth of CP’s freight operations alongside future growth in Metra’s operations, without degrading either.”
