Terry Bibo writes an opinion column for the Journal Star, so I don’t begrudge her expressing her advocacy for converting the Kellar Branch rail line into a dedicated trail, even though I obviously disagree with her. But it does bother me when she says things like this, as if it were a fact:

Even though the Peoria Park District has money banked to make it happen, the trail has languished for years. That’s because Pioneer Rail Corp. rarely uses the railroad line but says it will one of these days. The city of Peoria hasn’t forced the issue.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

First, she makes it sound as if the Park District has money in hand, sitting in a bank somewhere for this project. What they actually have are grants for which they applied prematurely (before they had STB approval to convert the line) that are sitting in limbo, and have been for over a decade.

Secondly, the trail has not languished because of Pioneer. The trail has languished for one main reason: the Park District insists that the only option is to replace the rail line with a trail. If they would have pursued alternatives, they could have had the thing built by now. But they’re not willing to compromise with side-by-side, on-street, adjacent-to-street, or other alternatives. They’ve decided to lay siege to the rail line, willing to wait it out for as many decades as it takes to get their way — at taxpayer expense, of course.

Thirdly, Pioneer isn’t even the superficial reason the trail has been held up. You may recall that the City got Pioneer kicked off the line and replaced with Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY). CIRY was supposed to provide service to Carver Lumber via the Kellar Branch until the western connection was built, then provide comparable service via the western connection. Furthermore, they were supposed to petition the Surface Transportation Board (STB) for discontinuance of the middle portion of the Kellar Branch so it could be converted to a trail, which they did initially. But CIRY never provided service over the Kellar Branch (breach of contract), and their service via the western connection was so poor that Carver Lumber complained to the STB for relief. The STB granted that relief by reinstating Pioneer on the line. CIRY also withdrew their petition for discontinuance (also breach of contract). So if Ms. Bibo and the Journal Star are looking for a scapegoat in the rail carrier arena, they should be complaining about CIRY, not Pioneer. But you’ll never hear the truth from the Journal Star on this issue. They’ve got their boilerplate (“Pioneer is to blame for everything regarding the trail because we don’t like them”), and they’re not going to deviate from it.

Fourthly, “the City of Peoria hasn’t forced the issue”? Seriously? Are you kidding me? The City has been carrying the Park District’s and Peoria Heights’ water on this issue for 17 years. The City has spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees to force the issue. They’ve built a $2 million connecting track to try to force the issue. After a decade and a half of fighting this, they’ve finally seen the handwriting on the wall and are trying to come up with another alternative — hence, the rail/trail committee that’s looking at shared use of the corridor.

Peoria Heights, in contrast, is now trying to pick up where the City left off fighting the STB, only this time spending their own taxpayers’ money for a change. They’re going to keep tilting at windmills, and they’re going to keep wasting more time and money while not ever getting a trail built. But they’ll be praised for trying anyway, at least by Mayor Maloof and the Journal Star.