I’ve been covering the ongoing Kellar Branch dispute for some time now, and I occasionally run into people who tell me they just don’t understand what’s going on — that it all seems very complicated. So, today, since there are not one, but two editorials about the Kellar Branch in the Journal Star, I thought it would be a good time to go back to the beginning and provide a quick summary. (I’ve borrowed heavily from David Jordan’s excellent and thorough history.)
WHAT IS THE “KELLAR BRANCH”?
The “Kellar Branch” is a portion of railroad track that runs from the riverfront at the foot of Caroline street by Detweiller Marina up through town passing Springdale Cemetery on the east, bridging War Memorial by the Journal Star, crossing Prospect and Glen, then Knoxville by Junction City, then running northwesterly past Pioneer Parkway and into Pioneer Industrial Park, finally terminating at Route 6.
The Kellar Branch was originally part of the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific Railroad (CRI&P) and once ran all the way to Rock Island, Illinois. The portion of the line between Alta and Toulon was abandoned in 1963 and was later converted to a walking/hiking trail now known as the Rock Island Trail. The Kellar Branch gets its name from Kellar Station, a railroad station/depot that used to stand near the current intersection of Northmoor Road and Knoxville Avenue; it was the first stop outside of Peoria back when passenger trains used to run on the CRI&P prior to the early 1930s.
THE KELLAR BRANCH, 1960-1983
Although the Alta-Toulon portion was abandoned, the Kellar Branch experienced growth throughout the 1960s and ’70s thanks to Pabst Brewery in Peoria Heights and the development of Pioneer Industrial Park. By 1971, 18 companies were served via the Kellar Branch.
However, the CRI&P was not the best-managed railroad in the world, going bankrupt three times (1914, 1933, and 1975). The last bankruptcy led to an unsuccessful attempt to sell the railroad to Union Pacific, and ultimately ended in liquidation of its assets in 1980. A couple of railroad companies considered buying the Kellar Branch, including Burlington-Northern, but when Pabst Brewery closed in 1982, interest in purchasing the line dried up. During this time, many customers stopped using the rail line because of its uncertain future.
CITY PURCHASES LINE IN 1984
Enter: the City of Peoria. Peoria and Peoria Heights bought the Kellar Branch from the CRI&P’s trustee in July 1984 for $856,000, not to put in a walking trail, but to restore rail service. The Journal Star explained a few months before the purchase (3/10/84):
The city has stepped in since the demise of the Rock Island to try and restore rail service to industries that had been forced to convert to more expensive forms of transportation. The issue is being pushed ahead also for its potential to attract new business….
The Kellar Branch was given a new formal name: the “Peoria, Peoria Heights, & Western,” and the municipalities pumped an additional $400,000 (roughly) into repairing and upgrading the track. Peoria was hoping to attract business to Pioneer Industrial Park, and the Heights was hoping that having rail service past the old Pabst plant would make that property more marketable. The Peoria & Pekin Union Railroad (P&PU) was hired to be the rail carrier for the line.
However, the city was looking for a way to recoup their investment quickly and instituted a special service district for Pioneer Park, special assessments of properties on the rail line, and per-car fees on rail shipments to help pay back the $1.25 million they paid to acquire and repair the line. That succeeded in just about killing all business along the branch line. Almost all the businesses stopped using rail service in 1985.
In 1986, the city realized the failure of that policy, dropped the per-car fees, and tried to lure shippers into using the line again with tax abatement incentives. That worked, and over the next several years more customers signed on, including Gateway Milling, O’Brien Steel and Cohen’s Furniture. In fact, by 1993 even Steve Van Winkle admitted that traffic was picking up along the line.
TRAIL TALK AND CITY INDECISION DOOM RAIL GROWTH
The city had only owned the line nine years when talk of turning it into a walking trail first hit the papers. A Journal Star article from 11/21/93 stated:
Peoria soon might be getting out of the railroad business, calling it quits on the eight-mile leg of the former Rock Island line.
[…] Rails-to-trails advocates are pushing to convert the rail line into a recreational trail, linking the Rock Island Trail to Peoria’s riverfront trail.
The Peoria Park District plans next year to extend the Rock Island Trail from its current end point, Alta, to Pioneer Park, and envisions the city rail line as the next logical extension.
Mind you, Gateway Milling was still bringing in 250-275 cars each year over the Kellar Branch when trail advocates started eyeing this corridor. Nevertheless, the city’s railroad commission (which incidentally was recently abolished per the Ad Hoc Committee on Commissions’ recommendation) voted in early 1994 to extend rail service for only three years; i.e., they wanted to take a “wait and see” approach. The Journal Star had this to say: “Though Van Winkle did not rule out a continuation of service past 1997, he did not offer much hope. ‘We’re really not sinking any money into it for a longer-term stay,’ he said.”
To add further uncertainty, when Peoria and Peoria Heights purchased the line in 1984, their agreement with P&PU was that they would operate the line for 20 years (until 2004), with an escape clause after 13 years (1997). Thus, it was uncertain whether P&PU would continue operating the line past 1997.
Not surprisingly, no growth happened over the next three years, and in May 1997 the City Council decided to abandon rail service and pursue turning the Kellar Branch into a bike trail.
That’s all background to the current struggle, which I’ll review in Part 2 of the Kellar Branch Saga Summary.
Hiking trails will not help shrinking rails lines and the expansion for industrial growth. Turning rails into trails is simply dodging the issue of keeping rail service to expand business aspects.When will leadership in local government ever get?
So Carver Lumber spent $41,000 getting deliveries by truck when the western line was not yet operable, and they want the city to reimburse them??? How can they seriously make that argument?
First, the money they spent getting deliveries from Amerhart was NOT $41k in additional costs, it was $41k INSTEAD of m0ney they would have spent ANYWAY getting rail deliveries.
They got truck deliveries for about 6 mos. Using their own math, at one car per week, that’s roughly $1,700 per car. It’s a wash. Had they been using the western line they would have paid $1,600$2,000 per car, according to the JS.
What about the businesses on Sterling who suffered an enormous drop in customers during the I-74 construction? Does IDOT owe them money? What about all the central Illinois businesses which, over time, have moved/closed/restructured due to governmental policy decisions, like NAFTA? Do taxpayers owe them money?
Carver is really milking it here. Yes, it sucks that the costs went up. But they AGREED –signed a document — to let us taxpayers build them their very own rail line so they could cont. to get rail shipments. If they and Pioneer get that Kellar line reopened, we’ll mail them a $2 million dollar invoice for reimbursement.
dm dave,
There wouldn’t have been any issue were it not for the closure of the Kellar Branch. The city made promises and Carver agreed, probably because it was forced to do so. Now the city is responsible for this mess.
Carver Lumber is right to prevent the destruction of the Kellar Branch. Please re-read every article on Billy’s, C. J.’s and my blog pertaining to this issue.
“DM DAVE”: It’s unfortunate that you see Carver as the source of mischief here. It was the City’s idea to build the rail spur, not Carver’s. Carver was happy with their service the way it was. They agreed to the City’s plan on the conditions that (a) service wouldn’t be interrupted during construction, and (b) service over the new spur would be comparable in price and timeliness as their service was over the Kellar Branch. The City assured Carver — in writing — that they would take every action necessary to secure that for Carver. But they haven’t. See part two of my summary for details.