Carver Lumber recently wrote the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and pleaded with them to let Pioneer Industrial Railway provide them service over the Kellar Branch. It’s technically called a petition for “Alternative Rail Service.” The idea is that everyone is kind of in limbo waiting for the STB to rule on whether service over the Kellar Branch should be discontinued or not, but in the meantime Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY), the city’s current carrier, refuses to run on the old Kellar Branch, even though they have an obligation to do so until the STB gives them approval to stop.
So, during this “limbo” period that CIRY is refusing to carry out their common carrier obligation, Pioneer is offering to provide that service instead. Clear as mud? Carver writes:
Several weeks ago Carver Lumber Company requested that the board restore our rail service over the Kellar Branch in Peoria County, Illinois. On July 27, 2006, Pioneer Industrial Railway Co. filed an Alternative Rail Service Request, which we support. To date, Central Illinois Railroad Company continues to refuse to provide service over the Kellar Branch, despite its common carrier obligation to do so.
Our business desperately needs reliable rail service. We urge the board to act as quickly as possible to grant Pioneer Industrial’s Alternative Service request.
It’s kind of sad that Carver has to appeal to the STB to get any relief. You’d think that Peoria, that’s supposedly trying to become more business-friendly, would be on Carver’s side, trying to get them the rail service they need. You’d think that Steve Van Winkle, who promised Carver in writing that “the City stands ready and willing to enforce all aspects of its contract with [CIRY]” would stand by his word and actually seek relief for Carver’s unnecessary expenses due to CIRY’s breach of contract.
But no. The city lied. The city wants Carver to go away. The city wants to throw away those 50 jobs, sales taxes, property taxes, and of course the $565,000 rail asset. All for a hiking/biking trail.
UPDATE: CIRY and the City have written the STB in response to Carver Lumber’s request. They point out that once a car is placed on the new western spur by Union Pacific, CIRY promptly delivers the car to Carver Lumber. Thus, they claim CIRY is fulfilling its common carrier service. Completely ignored is the fact that Carver could have gotten that shipment sooner had CIRY (or Pioneer) picked up the car downtown and taken it up the Kellar Branch instead of waiting for UP to place it on the western spur. It would be cheaper, too. Just one more example of how the City has no interest in dealing fairly with Carver Lumber Company.
I just heard a report that a Cornell University study found urban trails are hazardous to your health.
Maybe the City secretly wants to kill the trail nuts?
Makes about as much sense as what they are doing.
It always just seems to me, that if you can have your cake and eat it too, why not have both? Local politics are always such nonsensicality. Logic is nowhere to be found.
All,
The real villain here is the City of Peoria and its small-think, pie-in-the-sky, we-have-to-have-the-trail-built-or-the-city’s-future-is-at-stake idolatry (is that over the top?). The Central Illinois Railroad became the city’s shortline contractor because it agreed to support the City’s trail plans. CIRY’s behavior is consistent with that.
CIRY did break the terms of their contract in which Carver Lumber was left without service for seven months when they refused to operate on the Kellar Branch, even though their contract required them to do so until the western connection was completed. Now that the western connection is complete, the CIRY is using it.
C. J., you’re correct that CIRY can be blamed (at least in part) for increased transit times since they refuse to use the Kellar Branch. The’re in bed with the City, neither of which have the best interests of Carver Lumber in mind, however, they didn’t plan on the Kellar Branch still being in place this long and so they had no plans nor a desire to operate on it. That’s why I lay most of the blame on the City of Peoria, the Peoria Park District, the Peoria Journal Star, the Public Works Director and City Manager for their sloppiness, arrogance and unwillingness to deviate from their “we-have-to-build-that-trail” mentality. Hopefully, new members of the council can reverse this fiasco and save face.