The Journal Star has another Kellar Branch editorial. I can’t help but respond to their erroneous assertions and half-truths:

The start out by saying, “Depending on how the federal government rules, Peoria’s decaying Kellar branch rail line may either become a hiking/biking trail or be forced to reopen for rail service.” Notice there’s no mention (of course) of Pioneer Industrial Railroad’s offer to provide rail service and help build the trail next to the rail line. In the Journal Star’s mind, it’s either/or, one or the other. Too bad they can’t be more open-minded.

Then they proceed to look at the many and various cost estimates for bringing the rail line up to operable condition. After glossing over the three different cost estimates the city submitted ranging from $50,000 to $2 million, they have this little gem:

Meanwhile, Pioneer Railcorp, Kellar’s jilted carrier, apparently thinks it can make the line shine for just under $10,000, which would just about cover a few bushes and some other landscaping in someone’s yard. It’s not credible. Removing the monster weeds alone covering the tracks would take an army, and you know what the military-industrial complex charges these days.

Ah yes, local employer Pioneer Railcorp — the one that wants to buy the line for over $500,000 which would sure come in handy down at City Hall, the one that wants to lure more businesses to Pioneer Park and Growth Cell Two by providing reliable rail service, the one that has offered to rehab the line at their own expense, the one that successfully and profitably ran the line for seven years, the one that provided an itemized and detailed quote for track repair — they’re the ones who are nothing more than a “jilted carrier” and whose repair quote is “not credible.”

But the city, who hired non-local carrier Central Illinois Railroad Co. — the company that couldn’t get a load of lumber up the Kellar Branch, the company that had a runaway train that endangered the lives of Peorians, the company that never successfully or profitably ran the Kellar line, the company that broke their contract with the city, the company that is costing Carver Lumber considerably more in shipping because of said breach of contract, the company that provided a vague, non-itemized, unsigned quote for track repair — their estimate for service is somehow more credible, according to Peoria’s newspaper of record.

It’s so ironic that the city is fighting so hard, spending so much money on lawyers, and for what? So they can waste more money by tearing out a $565,000 asset. Good grief!

As for the “monster weeds” the paper worries would be so expensive to remove — has the Journal Star ever heard of Roundup? I would think one trip down the tracks in a service truck with a sprayer would take care of that problem.

But perhaps the most hopeful comment is the final one: “The city and village should explain their math [to the Surface Transportation Board] in detail, pronto, to dispel the confusion and not risk jeopardizing their credibility or the trail’s prospects.” My friend David Jordan believes this indicates that the Journal Star is starting to worry that the city may not win their case with the STB. I just think it’s funny that they can’t see that the city has already “jeopardized their credibility,” and not just with the STB.