Media: Is the JS edit board dishonest, or just plain dumb?
Never hesitant to let accuracy to get in the way of its opinions, the award winning (snicker) editorial page of the Peoria Journal Star today asserts that there are “no obvious customers” on the Kellar Branch* line.
Really? Lets count them: Carver Lumber, Obrien Steel and the ready mix plant on Van Buren (the name escapes me), not to mention the contract Central Illinois Rail has for storage of rail cars from other carriers, as well as the potential business from Globe Energy. You know, the company that might very well be offering 600 good-paying factory jobs in the future.
The PJS is whining that Peoria and Peoria Height’s property rights are being violated by the Surface Transportation Board. I say the these two entities knew from the day they bought the line (ironically, they bought it to keep it open and running) that the feds wouldn’t allow it to be taken out as long as there were customers that used it.
It’s one then when a newspaper promotes a position that makes no sense. It’s another when they present provably incorrect facts to do it. The first is a matter of opinion. The other is either dishonest or incompetent.
* NOTE: David Jordan is usually my go-to guy for transportation-related issues. But I had to comment on the intellectual dishonesty of today’s editorial. Sorry to step on your toes, David
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Dishonest, or just plain dumb? How about a little of both. We have been talking and talking and talking about this same thing for a long time. We have stated over and over again what the parameters are regarding the use of the Kellar Branch. What the customers and potential customers are and it falls on deaf ears. We have also stated that the trails and rails can run side by side, but again it falls on deaf ears. The only way this whole thing is going to be resolved is if all parties will sit down together and really, really try to come to a compromise and work for the benefit of all. The STB is not going to close the line if there is even one customer left on it. Also, CIRY has come to realize that it has a greater potential for profit by keeping the line completely open and serving all the customers and potential customers. Remember folks these customers pay taxes in this community and that benefits all as well as providing jobs here.
It’s still a balance thing, Billy. Can Carver and the rest be supplied with their materials if the Kellar Branch is not a rail any longer? Of course they can. Will it cost more? It likely will.
Conversely, can a trail be put similar to the one that the Park District would like to have put in, if the rail remains? No, it cannot.
What is for the best for the public as a whole? The rail or the trail? That is such a subjective consideration, and everyone has an opinion (pretty much). The problem lies in this, and this alone: Only the STB can decide. It’s really very simple.
All the STB has to do is say “The rail cannot be vacated… until there is NO potential business on the rail, EVER.”
Or, the STB could say, “It looks to us like it’s for the benefit of the public to have a trail there, and the rail needs of a few customers does not outweight that. So, the rail line is to be vacated… NOW.”
See how simple it COULD be? But, per usual, with a federal agency, it just can’t be that way… And, it’s immaterial to say the STB is not SUPPOSED to issue findings like this. I don’t give a rat’s patootie what they are supposed to do or not do… they know damn well what is going on here, and they could put the matter to rest, once and for all. They have made decisions in the past to vacate other lines, they can make a decision here to either vacate or NOT vacate… period.
Simple, right?
Then, it’s over and done. We can then all move on
“Conversely, can a trail be put similar to the one that the Park District would like to have put in, if the rail remains? No, it cannot.”
Yes, it can. One can’t be put in exactly like the Park District would like, no. But “similar”? Yep. Similar to what they have north of Pioneer Parkway. Similar to what they have by Sommer St. Similar to what they’ve done through Springdale Cemetery. You betcha.
It’s really very simple. They should just build the trail around the rail line and let the issue die.
That presuposes that the reason they SOOOOOO want to take out the Kellar is because they want a walking path. Sure, it’s one reason. Another is thet developers want to build residential housing. Another, in my opinion, is that Caterpillar doesn’t want industrial development in Peoria. Period. Too much competition for skilled workers makes wages go up. The people who simply want a bike/walk path are being used by these special interests, and the JS is feeding them the company line.
Bill,
My smashed toes healed quickly
To Prego,
When Pioneer Industrial Railway operated the Kellar Branch, trail proponents were skeptical whether the railroad was making any money, especially after Gateway Milling, which generated about 75% of the business at Pioneer Park, quit getting cars delivered to its facility in early 2002.
Now with even less business (Only O’Brien Steel is an active customer), the Central Illinois RR cooperated with the City in that they petitioned the STB to discontinue service on most of the Kellar Branch, then ask to have that withdrawn about a year later citing “new business opportunities.”
Why would CIRY do this if there wasn’t any business?
The JSEB won’t accept the facts because it destroys their case in calling for the closure of the Kellar Branch.
Billy Wrote; “Another, in my opinion, is that Caterpillar doesn’t want industrial development in Peoria. Period.”
I wonder how Globe Energy, planning 600 jobs averaging $55,000/year, fell through the cracks?
Caterpillar could care less whether there is other industrical development in Peoria…..and would probably support more of it not less. Who’s playing fast and loose with “facts” Billy.
The point that I can’t seem to get my hands around is WHY we have a federal bureaucracy that imposes a service (rail service) on a community that doesn’t want it. To put it bluntly, if the City owns the line and wants to tear it out, why shouldn’t they be able to. If it’s a bad decision – the City suffers for it’s shortsightedness. By why force them to continue providing a service to private companies – especially if there is the potential or actual losses from operating it.
If the line were owned by a private firm, they should have the same right. If there is a “higher and better” use (subjective I know) so be it. Let’s be thankful they haven’t regulated other industries like this – excuse me Telephone Company – you must continue to provide rotary service until the last holdout dies..until then, if there is a user you must continue to provide it. Ludicrous. I know the examples aren’t apple to apple but there are many similarities.
Peo Proud,
Peoria is NOT providing service to private companies – the operator of the Kellar Branch is doing that. The City purchased the railroad to restored rail service to Pioneer Park and to entice a buyer for the Pabst brewery. They own it, and that’s all. The railroad owned by a municipality is part of the NATIONAL rail network and thus comes under the jurisdiction of the FEDERAL Surface Transportation Board.
(See the connection?)
The Board has imposed nothing on the City, merely enforcing the law. Furthermore, it’s the City that made numerous promises to Carver Lumber (and other users in earlier years) of “comparable service” with the Kellar Branch. Carver neutrality for all those years was based on those promises. The failure of the City (and CIRY) to live up to those promises is what led Carver’s abandonment of its neutrality and the STB to reopen the decision that allow the City to evict Pioneer from the line.
The STB needs to order the City to sell the Kellar Branch to a railroad and be done with the issue forever. The Park District can plan on some semblance of a trail alongside the track as space permits. If it doesn’t get built, then it wasn’t important enough to begin with.
David: Those 600 jobs haven’t happened yet. I remain hopefull.
Railroads are an interest to the federal government for their military value.
[...] more excellent posts on the Kellar Branch, see Billy Dennis’s and PeoriaIllinoisan’s [...]
David,
Thanks for the attempted clarification. But I still don’t see why the Feds have any role in determining what infrastructure should be in place within a municipality to “attract” or “service” businesses. I own the line – I should be able to tear it out, shut if down or opeerate it….however I wish.
While in times past I would agree that rails were integral for military issues, not so today. This board is a relic of a by-gone era and a new process should be put in place. Unless this little stub is critical to the NATIONAL interest, they should have a much more limited role in deciding when, how and to use it is put.
PEO PROUD,
The Kellar Branch, as a legally “operational” railroad (though in practice only portions of it are indeed operational, which may change in a matter of days), is part of the national rail network because it’s connected to the nation’s rail network.
Carver Lumber is a buyer of product originating primarily in Canada and the Pacific Northwest and is a market for lumber mills in those areas. The only economical way to ship their forest products to Peoria is by rail (50 boxcars equal about 125 semis, each with its own driver).
Cutting off the Kellar Branch (which proved to be the only economical way to provide direct rail access to Pioneer Industrial Park following the western spur fiasco of 2006) has likely reduced shipments to Carver (and business for supplying lumber mills), which appears to no longer be using Tazewell & Peoria RR facilities in Creve Coeur to transfer product from railcars to trucks (Carver may again be buying through Amerhart, which has moved to Pekin).
I know it sounds puny and insignificant (which it is compared to the national system), but the Surface Transportation Board is an absolutely necessary agency to decide how transportation laws apply to issues involving shippers, railroads and municipalities. Such issues will always arise due to competing interests. As a matter of principle, the STB makes no distinction between large and small shippers or railroads.
You and I may disagree about the best use of the Kellar Branch but it’s important to understand that the STB is a necessary agency, whose functions were inherited from the Interstate Commerce Commission when that agency closed down in 1995.