A commenter calling himself “The Rest of the Story” has provided me with this response from Central Illinois Railroad Company (CIRY) President John Darling regarding Carver Lumber’s recent letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB). This letter isn’t written to the STB, however, but rather to City Manager Randy Oliver:

“John A Darling” 10/17/2006 5:00 PM

Dear Mr. Oliver:

Your legal counsel, Mr. McFarland, has responsive statements from our General Manager of Railroad Operations, Jack Stolarczyk (our senior operating officer), regarding Carver’s allegations. Carver’s pejorative mischaracterizations notwithstanding, the CIRY did everything it was asked to do, when it was asked to do it. The City’s Allen Road Project required a temporary closing of the UP connecting track from Monday afternoon, October 9th, until Thursday afternoon, October 12th. Carver Lumber was advised of this temporary closing well in advance so it could schedule its deliveries accordingly. Also, if there had been any cars on the UP Interchange on Wednesday, October 11th, then service could, and would, have been provided. But no cars were delivered to, and none picked up from, the UP interchange track during this period. The Western Connection was closed for only 72 hours (approximately), was reopened promptly following completion of the highway project, and remains open for service. Regardless of carver’s deliberate misrouting of cars away from an open interchange solely for the purpose of creating another “incident,” the CIRY can, and will, not accept any Carver Lumber cars via the TZP. Moreover, the CIRY has no common carrier obligation to repair decades of deferred maintenance by the Peoria, Peoria Heights and Western RR. The so-called Western Connection, is open and available. The central 8+ mile segment of the PPH&W railroad is out of service by General Order and will remain so until someone (other than the CIRY) invests the money required to repair the track.

I do not know what further we can provide you and your counsel. If you have a specific request, we will take it under advisement and comply, if we can. Upon Mr. Stolarczyk’s return next week, the CIRY could provide sworn statements, if useful. The CIRY does not intend to react to Carver’s spurious and unfounded allegations. As the saying goes, “We don’t have a dog in this hunt;” no one has given us any economic reasons to assert any rights that we may have, or could acquire, in the Kellar Branch, and we are not going to dignify Carver’s sophomoric allegations with a inane “tis” vs. “taint” exchange.

John A. Darling,
President
Central Illinois Railroad Co.

For those of you who don’t know, the “Peoria, Peoria Heights and Western RR” (PPHW) is the City of Peoria and the formal name of the Kellar Branch rail line. The City does business as the PPHW for purposes of managing the Kellar Branch. So the deferred maintenance to the Kellar Branch is the city’s fault, according to CIRY.

CIRY is also claiming that Carver deliberately “misrouted” rail cars in order to create an “incident” that they could exploit in their quest to get rail service restored via the Kellar Branch. I’m willing to concede that Carver may have tried to create such an incident (although I find that suggestion highly cynical), but even if they did, it only underlines the point that Carver feels backed into a corner. They’ve cooperated with the city, played by the rules, given the western spur a shot, and found themselves with inferior service and higher shipping costs. They’re desperate to get some relief, and it doesn’t appear the City is going to give it to them.

Also, CIRY’s response deals solely with the temporary closure of the western spur and the October routing of some rail cars. Yet this was an ancillary issue in Carver’s letter. The main point of Carver’s letter was to rebut CIRY’s earlier claims that the reason for the September delay in delivery was Union Pacific’s fault; Carver presented evidence that CIRY lied about that. CIRY does not respond to this main allegation.