The U.S. government has approved Canadian National Railway's controversial purchase of a line that would loop freight trains around Chicago, a bypass that some suburban communities fear will cause massive traffic problems, local press reported Wednesday.
Proposed 15 months ago, Canadian National Railway (CN) and its supporters say the deal would help promote the Chicago-area economy by 60 million U.S dollars a year, creating hundreds of jobs and easing train gridlock.
Supporters of the deal believe the project would shift freight traffic away from the city by looping it in a 198-mile arc through the outer suburbs of Great Chicago. But many of those suburbs fear that the number of trains through their communities would triple or quadruple, blocking crossings for longer periods and tying up road traffic.
CN has offered to pay 300 million U.S. dollars to U.S. Steel for the project, 100 million U.S. dollars to upgrade the line and another 60 million U.S. dollars to help local communities on the U.S. side to deal with the traffic impact along the route.
So far, CN has reached agreements to minimize the impact with communities concerned.
Source:Xinhua
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