The Interstate Commerce Commission has rejected a request that could have led to the loss of a north suburban rail line as a potential rapid transit corridor.
The ICC turned down a request by Chicago & North Western Railway for an exemption to abandonment proceedings for a secondary freight line from Northbrook to Skokie, parallel to the Edens Expressway.
Had the exemption been granted, C&NW could have immediately discontinued service on the line. Transit advocates had feared the corridor could then be lost to development.
”We`re thrilled,” said Timothy Doron, director of the transportation unit of the Northwest Municipal Conference. ”This buys some time for us to work with the Regional Transportation Authority and some other agencies to study ridership demand.”
The Des Plaines-based municipal conference has been working with the Chicago Department of Public Works and several northern suburbs on preserving the rail corridor, much of it over the roadbed of the defunct Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee electric interurban railroad.
A proposed ”North Suburban-O`Hare Connector” would operate rapid transit trains from Northbrook to O`Hare International Airport by way of Northfield, Glenview, Wilmette, Skokie, Lincolnwood and Chicago.
It would connect with the O`Hare rapid transit line of the Chicago Transit Authority near the Kennedy Expressway and Montrose Avenue.
However, C&NW, which acquired the North Shore right-of-way for freight operations after the electric railroad stopped running in 1963, had asked the ICC for expedited permission to abandon the line from Oakton Street in Skokie to just south of Lake-Cook Road in Northbrook.
The ICC last week rejected the railroad`s request on the grounds that the line was marginally profitable, Doron said. This leaves C&NW the option of regular abandonment proceedings, which could take several years.
Robert Opal, commerce counsel with C&NW, said that the railroad probably would pursue abandonment, but added that other projects have higher priority. Opal noted that C&NW had offered to sell the line to the RTA last fall, but was turned down.
The line north of Oakton has only two shippers left on it, a candymaker and a lumberyard.
C&NW already has abandoned and torn up tracks south of Oakton to Bryn Mawr Avenue in Chicago. Commonwealth Edison Co., which runs power lines along the rail line, exercised its right of first refusal to buy the right-of-way for about $2 million.
The fallback position of transit advocates has been the fact that Edison has first dibs on the line north of Oakton if it ever becomes available.
But support for mass transit isn`t universal: Lincolnwood opposes a line that would cut through residential areas, while Northfield objects to having trains roaring through the heart of the village.
For the moment, Doron said, ”all we`re asking for is to do a ridership study.”
A strong ridership forecast could justify spending an estimated $120 million to start passenger service on the line, Doron said. The Chicago Area Transportation Study, in preliminary projections, estimated that the route could carry as many as 33,000 riders a day.
