According to recently published statements made by Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena, we need a transcontinental rail merger to dramatically improve rail service by eliminating what Vena claims are the allegedly “inefficient and time-consuming interchanges (or hand-offs) that occur in Chicago between east and west networks.” Vena’s merger solution would (in his words) “eliminate the inefficient and time-consuming interchanges that occur at Chicago between Eastern and Western railroads.” He subsequently defined the problem as one of taking “24 to 36 hours to hand off freight cars in Chicago,” which is down somewhat from his original estimate of 2-3 days.
However, for the sake of clarity, it should be noted that the current figure of 31 hours terminal transit time has been officially endorsed by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) for use in its 2050 Comprehensive Long-Range Plan (originally released in 2018). According to CMAP, “The Plan’s targets reflect a return to 2016 conditions by 2025, and cutting the remaining transit time, less yard dwell time, in half by 2050. The amount of time trains spend in classification yards is beyond the control of any CMAP policy recommendations, so the targets focus solely on decreasing the time spent traveling to and from them. 2025: 27.0 hours or shorter carload transit time; 2050: 24.5 hours or shorter carload transit times.”
In my opinion, terminal yard dwell time could be dramatically reduced by simply pre-blocking interchange cars at outlying yards before they got to Chicago vs. “unloading” so much interchange work onto the heavily used (perhaps overworked) classification yard operated by the Belt Railway Company of Chicago. Pre-blocked cars could then be interchanged shortly after arrival in Chicago, saving a considerable amount of time over the current cumbersome, time-consuming process.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, when one goes on to objectively examine the recent actual history of Chicago terminal operations, one will discover reports of its demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated by Mr. Vena, among others.
First, may we respectfully suggest that things are not nearly as bad here in the Chicago Terminal as previously reported. As we all know, according to the Association of American Railroads, we already have a solution to “the Chicago problem” called CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program). The CREATE Program has made enormous progress over the past 25 years in improving Chicago’s rail infrastructure. Ironically, much of this progress directly benefits Union Pacific’s rail operations in the Terminal.
Second, not everyone may realize it, but CMAP has integrated the CREATE Program, and the issues of rail congestion and grade crossing delays, into the Chicago region’s comprehensive long-range plan. The current version of this plan, released in 2018, is commonly referred to as ON TO 2050 to reflect its planning horizon of the year 2050. (I had the privilege of helping develop the original comprehensive plan, referred to as GO TO 2040, as a member of the original CMAP Citizens Advisory Committee.)
According to the CMAP website, “the Plan is designed to help northeastern Illinois communities address transportation, equity, environmental and other quality-of-life issues.” Since its creation by the Illinois General Assembly in 2005, CMAP has become one of the nation’s premier regional planning agencies as well as an integral part of the Chicago Region’s always fascinating political fabric.
Finally, the proposed merger, if approved, may provide the ultimate solution to the issue of rail congestion in the Chicago Terminal. For that we may all owe Mr. Vena an enormous debt of gratitude.
According to its website, “The CREATE Program is improving the way passengers and goods move over rail. We’re modernizing the Chicago region’s rail network to add capacity, reduce travel times and improve safety … We’re untangling our rail system to improve regional mobility, promote economic growth and address environmental impacts. Fixing Chicago’s railroads is a significant endeavor, requiring close coordination and partnership between the railroads and city, state and federal governments.”
I think everyone agrees that one of the most beneficial results of the CREATE Program has been the creation of The Chicago Integrated Rail Operations Center (CIROC). According to the AAR website, “Effectively managing the heart of the rail network takes more than just new infrastructure; it takes meticulous, coordinated planning across all railroads to manage operations efficiently. It is the brain that helps make that possible.”
They have also created The Common Operational Picture (COP), an integration of railroad dispatch systems into one display so operators and staff can communicate more efficiently and respond to problems quickly.
Completion of key infrastructure projects has been slow but steady over the past 25 years. (This is not that long a time period when one considers that the original O’Hare International Airport Modernization Program (OMP), fully funded and managed by the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), took 16 years to fully complete before CDA started the current terminal expansion phase called O’Hare 21.)
- Virtually all eleven of the Beltway Corridor Projects (along the Indiana Harbor Belt main line) have now been completed. This is a route used heavily today by Union Pacific and presumably would be a primary main line through the terminal for any transcontinental railroad. (With completion of Project P7 in Chicago Ridge, the IHB has the potential to become a serious bypass route in its own right for all carriers to utilize.)
- Four of the eight Western Avenue Corridor projects have been completed. The north end of this Corridor connects UP’s Global I Terminal with the UP main line.
- With a significant package of infrastructure and operational improvements now in place on Norfolk Southern and CSXT at Pine Junction in Gary, Ind., the only remaining bottleneck located anywhere on the IHB main line is the Dolton Interlocking, which is also the subject of CREATE project WA-11.
It should also be noted that CREATE and the state of Illinois have helped fund three projects along 44 miles of UP’s Geneva Subdivision from the Ogilvie Transportation Center to Elburn, Ill. that will significantly increase its operating capacity. Completion of these projects will provide Union Pacific with a level of operational flexibility comparable with BNSF’s famed triple-track Chicago to Aurora main line.
Chicago is the largest inland port in the U.S. Ten interstate highways crisscross the region. According to one online database, as of May 2025, there are 5,989 trucking companies operating in Illinois. Most of these are single-driver operations but 619 are part of larger corporate organizations with multiple driver counts. The region contains more than one billion square feet of industrial space.
CMAP estimates that 50% of all intermodal trains in the U.S. pass through Chicago (including those that either originate or terminate here). It also remains the intermodal hub of North America, with 18 Class I intermodal terminals that are switched daily. Scattered across the Chicago Region, half of these terminals currently belong to either UP or Norfolk Southern. This merger may provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rationalize the somewhat haphazard placement of existing intermodal terminals, most of which are located in the City’s predominantly African American southside neighborhoods.
An early update on the progress of the Chicago Planning Group was written in July 2003 by my friend Mike Blaszak: “Three years of cooperation through the Chicago Planning Group and its CTCO showed substantial improvements.” Mike’s article went on to observe, “In late 2002 the average car was moving through Chicago in 30 hours” (approximately 1.5 days vs. Mr. Vena’s 2-3 days). This was one-third faster than in 1990, and the average car was sitting in Chicago yards for 23 hours per trip, down from 41 hours. The percentage of Metra delays caused by freight interference dropped from 30% to 10%.”
“These figures represent 75 to 80% of perfection,” said Greg Garrison, CTCO director and Union Pacific’s representative at the time. (It should also be noted that 2003 was well before any of the 70 CREATE component projects had been completed.)
As an aside here, one of the most congested of these interlockings was located in the Chicago South Side neighborhood known as Englewood. This was one of the very first “big problems” that CREATE solved with the now famous Englewood Flyover (Project P1) completed in 2014. It cost $142 million to complete with only $3 million of that coming from the railroad industry. As a result of this project, Norfolk Southern got back six hours of track time per day by not being blocked by the morning and evening Metra fleet on the Rock Island District.
Operating conflicts between freight and passenger trains in the Terminal is a serious issue. Metra is one of the largest commuter rail operations in the U.S. Chicago is the hub of Amtrak’s long-distance network and home to three evolving high-speed passenger corridors linking Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis with Chicago. State-funded Amtrak trains link the Chicago area with three of the state’s largest public universities. CREATE already offers a real-world mitigation solution here that should be of interest to anyone actively considering mergers to solve existing delay problems in the Chicago terminal.
The CREATE Program includes seven passenger flyover component projects specifically designed to reduce if not eliminate passenger vs. freight delays all together. Project P1 in Englewood is already complete (and appears to be working exactly as planned). Projects P2 and P3 are included as part of the 75th Street improvement Project. Project P5 is designed alleviate delays and conflicts at the Brighton Park crossing, one of the busiest rail crossings in the U.S. The project will increase freight train speeds from 30 mph to 45 mph. Metra and Amtrak delay due to freight conflict will be alleviated with the Brighton Park Flyover. Project P7 is located on the IHB main line in southwest suburban community of Chicago Ridge, at the intersection with Metra’s SouthWest Service route. P7 is designed to reduce delays on the IHB Corridor a busy connection route used extensively by Union Pacific.
One of the more absurd and truly ridiculous situations that CREATE has uncovered (and is aggressively dealing with) was the absurdly high number of hand-thrown main line switches still in use in the Terminal (in 2000). The companion problem here was the extensive amount of main line trackage not signalized. That is right, miles of dark territory in the middle of the busiest rail terminal in the world.
My favorite quote on this is from Chuck Allen, the retired general manager of the IHB. In a 2023 article, he said, “I know it’s nuts, but NS runs trains from North Jersey to Chicago on CTC and BNSF does the same from Los Angeles to Chicago, but here in Chicago they were on an unsignaled railroad trying to reach each other.”
As Exhibit A, we offer CREATE Project WA1, Westside Gateway/Ogden Junction. This project includes Union Pacific’s Rockwell Subdivision, a critical piece of infrastructure that connects UP’s Global I intermodal terminal with its east-west main line a few miles away. In 2021, Global I was UP’s third-busiest Chicago area intermodal terminal by lift count. The CREATE website indicates that WA1 is an “active” project (which should be good news for Union Pacific):
“The area between Kedzie Interlocking (north end of project) and Ogden Junction (south end of project) currently is not signalized and actual train speed is often much less than the maximum authorized timetable speed of 15 mph. In addition, the trains are required to be able to stop within half the range of vision (restricted speed), but in many locations along this section, when a train occupies the adjacent track this range of vision is very limited. The slow train speeds result in poor train flow, delay, congestion, and limited capacity.
“Additionally, the freight trains operating daily in the WA1 Project area use radio control and navigate seven hand-thrown switches. A train experiences 15 to 30 minutes of delay for every switch the conductor is required to hand operate. Currently, most trains spend up to one hour to traverse the limits of this project.”
Three of the most significant projects on the Beltway Corridor directly involved Union Pacific (and presumably directly benefit UP operations). Project B2, Union Pacific Third Main Line – Proviso Yard, now provides freight trains with an additional track for mobility during Metra rush hour and circumventing standing delays of 3 to 4 hours.
Project B3, the Melrose Connection, added new track on a new bridge to create a second connection between the IHB and Union Pacific’s Proviso Yard. The second connection on the new rail bridge allows trains to maintain active operation on the IHB at the same time trains are entering and departing Proviso Yard, which greatly increases capacity.
Project B4/B5, La Grange/Broadview Signalization. Prior to completing the this, most trains spent up to 2 hours traversing the limits of this project due to the hand-thrown switches and restricted speeds. These signal improvements and powering of hand-thrown switches now allow trains to pass through this segment in as little as 20 minutes. Trains now can operate up to 30 mph, a significant increase from a “restricted speed” (between 1 and 20 mph) prior to the project.
BNSF will directly benefit from Project B6, the McCook Connection, which upgraded its Chillicothe Subdivision-IHB connection at McCook from a 10 mph to 25 mph speed limit.
The most congested location in the entire Chicago terminal is the infamous 75th Street Corridor. Located at the southern end of the Western Avenue Corridor (and the eastern entrance to the BRC’s Clearing Yard) this mess directly involves trains operated by CSX, NS and Union Pacific. My friend Fred Frailey describes this as “a textbook case of what happens when you try to squeeze too much railroad into too little space.” It remains a dubious monument to the almost complete lack of planning and foresight collectively exhibited by the Class I’s in the Chicago Terminal prior to 1995. Metra CEO Jim Derwinski has called it “the biggest chokepoint in the region if not the nation.”
CREATE’s solution is called the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project. It calls for building two flyovers identified as Project P2, Rock Island Connection and Project P3, Forest Hill Flyover. The first will carry the north-south CSX Blue Island Subdivision over the BRC, Metra and NS tracks at Forest Hill. The other will carry Metra’s tracks of the BRC and NS tracks east of Belt Junction. This project will eliminate the most congested rail chokepoint in the Chicago Terminal.
The Chicago Terminal remains a critical piece of national railroad infrastructure. It requires active management and oversight by a qualified staff of professional railroaders on a 24/7 basis. On Jan. 31, 2015, the Chicago region got its sixth largest snowfall in recorded history. The CTCO Team led by BRC’s Stephen Hoye, who ran the coordination office at the time, initiated what is known as an “Operation Condition Red.” This is a CTCO emergency protocol designed specifically to keep the Terminal fluid and operating during Chicago winters. Moreover, it worked quite well. According to published reports quoting Mr. Hoye, “Chicago trembled but didn’t crumble.”
CMAP Public Oversight
ON TO 2050 is the comprehensive plan that guides regional priorities and transportation investments in northeastern Illinois. The plan was adopted in October 2018 and updated in October 2022. CMAP was created by the Regional Planning Act (70 ILCS 1707/1 et. seq.) (the “Act”), and the agency’s Policy Committee is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization for northeastern Illinois as detailed in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 [23 U.S.C. § 134]. The Act provides for a consolidated regional planning agency to plan for the most effective public and private investments in the northeastern Illinois region, to better integrate plans for land use and transportation, program transportation funds, and serve as the region’s data hub.
CMAP was created to address the development and transportation challenges in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties. The agency also provides research on transportation system safety and equity, freight, housing, economic development and environment and natural resources through the federally required metropolitan planning process. ON TO 2050 is the latest edition of the master plan to fulfill this purpose.
CMAP also is the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for northeastern Illinois. MPOs are federally designated bodies responsible for allocating federal transportation funds and managing the transportation planning process. In the Chicago Region, this makes CMAP in effect the gatekeeper for all federal funds being allocated for transportation improvements in the Region, including the public’s share of CREATE.
One of the Plan’s specific recommendations contained in its Mobility section calls for actions to mitigate the negative impacts of freight on adjacent areas, particularly Economically Disconnected Areas. The Plan goes on to say “that while providing broad economic benefits, freight activity can have adverse impacts on communities. Truck and rail traffic can cause noise, congestion, air quality, and other negative impacts. Trucks cause heavy wear and tear on locally maintained roads, and at-grade rail crossings can cause delays for motorists as well as difficulty in routing emergency services. Many freight and industrial facilities also generate low returns from the property taxes and other fees that municipalities can enact, creating a gap between the cost to provide supportive infrastructure or services and the revenues generated. This can in turn lead to a lag between infrastructure needs and local investment that would reduce negative impacts on adjacent communities. These cumulative factors often make freight a locally unwanted land use.”
CMAP Indicators
According to CMAP, “ON TO 2050 indicators are intended to serve as benchmarks for monitoring the progress of plan implementation. Where possible, each plan recommendation is tracked by one or more indicators. The targets should not be viewed as projections or forecasts, but rather as desired outcomes that represent the optimistic range of achievable outcomes assuming implementation of the recommendations of ON TO 2050. To track progress on improving the nation’s freight network, ON TO 2050 provides an indicator on and sets a target of reducing Chicago terminal carload transit time.
“Indicator: The indicator measures the fluidity of the Chicago Terminal, which is important to the economic strength of the region’s rail industry. This measures the annual average time carload freight takes to get through the core of Chicago’s rail freight hub, the Chicago Terminal, extending from the City of Chicago to roughly the IHB in the near-west suburbs. Much of the carload freight needs to pass through classification yards in the Chicago Terminal, where the interchange is made between predominantly eastern railroads, predominantly western railroads, Canadian railroads, and smaller regional and industrial railroads. The measure also indicates how fast trains are moving. A slow train will block a highway-rail grade crossing longer than a fast train. Related recommendation: Maintain the region’s status as North America’s freight hub.
“Methodology: Data is provided to CMAP for the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office by the Association of American Railroads’ data provider, RailInc. The information is also provided to and posted by the Surface Transportation Board. The terminal transit time includes both dwell time in the classification yards, totaling about 22 hours, and the time spend traveling to and from those yards. Carload freight excludes containerized and single-purpose, through-routed unit trains.
“Targets: The targets reflect a return to 2016 conditions by 2025, and cutting the remaining transit time, less yard dwell time, in half by 2050. A fixed yard dwell time of 22 hours, consistent with recent observations, is assumed. The amount of time trains spend in classification yards is beyond the control of any CMAP policy recommendations, so the targets focus solely on decreasing the time spent traveling to and from them. 2025: 27.0 hours or shorter carload transit time 2050: 24.5 hours or shorter carload transit times.”
It should be noted there is a separate target that addresses grade crossing delays in the Chicago Region. As the primary solution to the delay issue, the ON TO 2050 Plan calls for the remaining 17 proposed CREATE grade separations to be completed by 2050.
Unintended Consequence
Jim Vena may not realize it, but he may have inadvertently provided the ultimate solution to the congestion problem for all of us. Just about any anecdotal list of rail industry suggestions for improving the Chicago Terminal includes a recommendation for as much rail traffic as possible to avoid the City altogether. This was the genesis behind the ill-fated Great Lakes Basin Railroad proposal.
CN achieved this goal of solving its Chicago problem with the acquisition of the EJ&E in 2009. Former CN CEO Claude Mongeau undertook the EJ&E project when he was the railroad’s Chief Financial Officer. That is why we call this the “Mongeau Approach.” As part of a published discussion about the impact of the EJ&E acquisition on the CREATE Program, Mongeau was quoted as saying, “We created capacity for other railroads to use in Chicago.”
Assuming Union Pacific goes ahead with reported plans to construct and operate its own Chicago bypass, presumably using portions of the former Wabash main line between Kansas City and Fort Wayne, Mr. Vena would be in effect creating new capacity for other railroads to use in the Chicago Terminal. This would presumably also improve access to the remaining UP-NS intermodal terminals in Chicago.
This would certainly be a very interesting “downstream effect” of the proposed UP+NS merger.
James A. Giblin has more than 40 years’ experience in rail, truck and intermodal freight transportation, warehousing and logistics, much of it in the greater Chicago area. He has lived in the Chicago area most of his adult life and is intimately familiar with the region’s freight and passenger rail infrastructure. For six years he is proud to say, “He made his run and made his pay on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe.” In recent years, his professional experience has expanded and diversified to include numerous public sector clients and projects in communities and municipalities across Chicago’s south suburbs. He submitted written testimony as regional rail industry expert in favor of CN/EJ&E merger to the Surface Transportation Board and testified at the STB’s September 2008 Chicago hearing in favor of transaction. Jim is a former multi-year Chair of the Education Committee of the Traffic Club of Chicago. The opinions expressed here are his own, not those of Railway Age.
