Journal Star: Trail at any cost

The Journal Star has another editorial on the Kellar Branch today. I’m surprised it took them this long to write it, considering all their editorials on this issue follow the same boilerplate. Once again, it’s time to set the record straight:

Recall that Carver was the Kellar branch’s only customer, and that the city of Peoria built the company a $2 million extension so it could continue getting deliveries.

This is revisionist history. Peoria did not “buil[d] the company a $2 million extension.” The resolution which passed on May 15, 2001 stated explicitly the reason for extending the spur was “to retain long-term cost effective, direct rail service to Pioneer Industrial Park and future rail service to Growth Cell #2….” It was not just to benefit Carver Lumber, unless the council was lying about their reason for building it. (Insert cynicism here.)

It’s also worth noting that there were several other businesses on the Kellar Branch before the city started their attempt to de-rail it. So the fact that Carver is the “only” customer now is to the city’s shame. Is the Journal Star happy they’ve run these businesses out of town for the sake of a trail?

And the $2 million cost did not come out of Peoria’s coffers. Most of that was a grant, just like the $4 million in grants that the Park District wants to use to build the trail. The Journal Star likes to think of grants as free money when it comes to building a trail, but for rail service it’s seen as a liability. More hypocrisy. The city only spent $175,000 out of the capital improvement fund for the spur.

Carver’s number-crunching ought not interfere with the trail conversion. At this point, they are two separate issues. There must be a way to walk and chew gum – to help Carver and build the trail – at the same time.

They are not two separate issues. Getting Surface Transportation Board (STB) approval is part of the process precisely so that rail line owners can’t do what Peoria is trying to do: take a line out of service without any regard for the businesses using that line. The process is working the way it was intended.

If the city and Park District were really willing to “walk and chew gum,” they could have had this trail completed years ago — by putting it side-by-side with the Kellar Branch.

Does the STB think the Kellar branch would magically reopen overnight and, poof, Carver’s problem would be solved? Parts of the line are in disrepair. It cost $350,000 for the city of Peoria to rehab a just small swatch of track in Pioneer Park. Multiply that by 8 1/2 miles and you get an idea of the prohibitive price tag.

This is a red herring. First of all, the tracks should not be in disrepair, and if they are, then it was due to a breach in contract with DOT Rail (d/b/a Central Illinois Railway), and Peoria should take legal action against them to pay for the repairs.

According to the city’s April 27, 2004, contract with DOT Rail, the city is only responsible for “maintenance of roadways and street crossings (excluding rails, ties and signal devices on roadways and streets) under the jurisdiction of the city.”

DOT Rail, on the other hand, “shall assume the responsibility for all maintenance of tracks, crossing protection, and roadbed including weed, brush, snow and ice control thereon, all drainage control maintenance, and all weed and brush control on the remainder of the right-of-way, following the guidelines set forth by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).”

Granted, this particular contract expired 60 days after the western spur was completed, but the spur was completed in February, which means the contract expired in April, just last month. If there are tracks in need of repair, that means DOT Rail was in breach of contract. Of course, since they never made a single delivery over the Kellar Branch, they were in breach of contract the entire time that Carver Lumber had to haul their lumber via truck at tremendous expense.

The decision to close Kellar has been made.

No, Journal Star Editorial Board, the decision hasn’t been made. It’s up to the STB, and they’ve said it can’t be closed yet. The Journal Star’s statement is a bald-faced lie.

Serious money has been spent on an alternative. It would be crazy to tap local taxpayers for even more millions to have two competing branches – one of which is old and rickety and interrupts traffic at several major intersections. Service to Carver would probably be faster by rickshaw, on a bike path.

Again, taxpayers would not be tapped for anything if the Kellar Branch were reopened. In fact, Pioneer would probably still be interested in buying it, in which case, rather than costing the taxpayers, the City of Peoria could rake in over a half-million dollars instead!

Also, the branches wouldn’t be “competing” with each other. The UP has access to both ends of the Kellar Branch (sole access at the western spur and neutral access downtown via the TZPR). So this is another nonsense statement.

There’s talk of getting a short-haul operator to run cars over UP’s line. But these are logistical matters that can be sorted out without derailing the trail.

Sure. And there are just a few logistical matters with getting pigs to fly, too. By all accounts from every railroad worker and enthusiast I know or have read, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that UP is going to let a short-haul operator run cars over its mainline.

The level of Carver’s rail service is not a little “logistical matter.” It’s the difference between them staying in business in Peoria or either moving out of Peoria or going out of business. This is a business that has been in this area over 60 years. But it’s apparently just collateral damage to the Journal Star, the City of Peoria, and the Peoria Park District, who continue to fight for a hiking trail at any cost.

11 thoughts on “Journal Star: Trail at any cost”

  1. “Also, the branches wouldn’t be “competing” with each other. The UP has access to both ends of the Kellar Branch (sole access at the western spur and neutral access downtown via the TZPR). So this is another nonsense statement.”

    Actually, there will not be two competing “branches” because only one railroad will operate on city-owned trackage (and perhaps both “branches” if there is any justice).

    Mike Bailey will probably never realize that he doesn’t have a clue about railroad issues. He could be told a thousand times and still not believe it. Fortunately, he’s not the one making these decisions.

  2. David,

    What we’re still not getting here is WHY. WHY the big push? WHY the reckless disregard for facts or the welfare of local business? WHY? Or is this another case of looking out for the welfare of ONE particular local business who has decreed this must happen to serve their own purposes, much like the stadium?? Who gains and how? I’d honestly say that if we could genuinely follow the money so to speak, somebody’d be going to PMITA prison.

    BTW, I am putting up overhead contour maps of the only 2 places along the Kellar that I can see problems with building the trail side by side. Ya’ll welcome to snag ’em.

  3. Yes, David, excellent point. Thanks for the clarification.

    Vonster, the Park District wants the trail. And what the Park District wants, the Park District gets. I don’t know why.

  4. And from way out in left field… to smuggle drugs in? Yeah its a stretch… ok a big stretch. Yes I am reaching here.

    Have you noticed in recent years all bicycles? I am not talking about kids riding the bikes… but rather the young adults. Have you seen two riding along with pockets bulging with bills? It has been a few years but there was a write up in the past about dealers using more bicycles in cities. Odd as that would seem but not really, it is good cover. What can you be pulled over for on a bicycle? You can weave in and out of areas, out of sight out of mind. A trail running from out of town straight into town… lots of pick up and drop off points, little observation. Yet it all looks like people just enjoying a good ride.

    When I used to manage a local restaurant… the talk was that all the serious drug money was in the ‘white’ part of town. Big people being big players.

    I remember seeing some kids stealing a bicycle off the front porch of a house on Parkside. I got the local neighbor cop to give chase but they couldn’t have gotten more than three or four blocks and they all but disappeared. A car would not have hidden so easily.

    The drug trade will sure benefit from the trail…

  5. I suspect Mahkno’s post of being less than serious but he unintentionally brings up another point. What’s been referred to as the Ho Chi Minh trail on the east bluff is such a problem – might there be an unintended consequence of providing bad folks with a unpatrolable after-hours superhighway?

    The question remains….WHY?

  6. Great write up Chris! If only the PJ Czar would attack the trail vs rail issue with the same questions, I would then bet the public and city clowncil members would start to awaken and ask the same.

    As for Mahkno’s scenario of biking dealers, I find that interesting, though I am not sure our local dealers would want to put that much energy into the actual pedelling of their warez. An officer on foot wouldn’t stand a chance to catch them, but the bicycle officers I would be willing to bet could nail them.

    I still want to know what the cost will be for the pedestrian bridges, is that part of the grant, or is that PPD monies? Or better yet is Ray “The Hoodlum” LaHood going to get some pork passed under the transportation bill?

  7. As to Vonster’s questions about a possible money trail and corruption, I suspect that it’s less an organized conspiracy but rather so-called “new economy” interests thinking they have the moral right to impose their will on everyone, regardless of the effects on “old economy” interests, which will suppodedly shrivel up and die anyway, right?

    For the same reason that people get injured when hit by a train at a grade crossing (“I didn’t see it coming, I swear!”), local pols don’t have a clue what makes the area economy tick. It ain’t eating establishments, Wal-Mart or McDonalds; it’s Caterpillar, Keystone Steel & Wire, ADM, Aventine, MGP Ingredients, Degussa-Goldschmidt, Lonza, Komatsu, etc. (all heavy manufacturers) and the associated warehousing, railroad and trucking jobs they generate. Medical jobs are plentiful and growing but the only substantive growth locally is due to investment by the private sector (St. Francis is going to need an additional 1000 persons to staff their new Children’s Hospital whenit is completed in 2009) and could never replace the 31,000+ manufacturing jobs in the area. Unfortunately, most local officials are too shallow to understand these things.

    The Kellar Branch allowed the city to market some vacant warehouses at Pioneer Industrial Park to rail users and perhaps create a few hundred jobs. Now, the alternative rail connection via Union Pacific will likely be a deterrent.

  8. After seeing the details of Pioneer’s offer, I too am wondering “why” it isn’t being seriously considered. This isn’t an either/or situation, but a both/and possibility. We could have the rail and the trail under their plan.

    Another “why” question I have is why CIRY is allowed to flagrantly violate the terms of their contract with the city and yet suffer no repercussions.

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