Chi-Trib columnist/blogger Eric Zorn notes a case of bicycling enthusiasts who lack perspective. Gee … like we’ve never heard of THAT here in Peoria.

Sometimes the Journal Star’s Award-winning editorial board can come up with some thought-provoking analysis. And then we have the snarky rants that readers were presented with this morning. We have are two knee-jerk, anti-rail road diatribes.
One ignores half of the facts in the long and convoluted Kellar Branch controversy, including the basic simple fact that [...]

The Journal Star reports today that Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) and Pioneer Industrial Railway (PIRY) have come to an agreement as to when each can operate on the Kellar Branch. 
If you’ll recall, the Surface Transportation Board decided last Friday to mediate the dispute between the two carriers. If an agreement was not reached by Friday, [...]

Central Illinois Railroad  confidently asserts that Pioneer Industrial Railway has “misled” the Surface Transportation Board regarding the fight over the Kellar Branch, yet themselves need to confess those same sins. Case in point: yesterday’s Petition to Modify and Hold in Abeyance the Board’s Nov. 19 Decision to restore PIRY’s operating authority on the Kellar Branch. CIRY states:
The [...]

Links via the Journal Star, unless noted:

Once again, evil railroad tracks have lured someone into the path of an oncoming locomotive device. This time, it’s a pickup track that collided with a track sweeper.
Speaking of rail, blogger C.J. Summers blisters the Journal Star for its illogical opposition to running the Rock Island Trail next to [...]

I’m sure this issue is far from being solved, but the Federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) made public its Decision today regarding the City of Peoria and Village of Peoria Heights’ plan to keep Pioneer Industrial Railway off the Kellar Branch:
“The Cities’ application for adverse discontinuance of PIRY’s operating authority is denied.”
Basically, the STB restored [...]

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 [...]

All links via the Journal Star:

Despite one adverse decision after another from the Surface Transportation Board, the Peoria City Council still seems to be clinging to the idea of closing the Kellar Branch rail line and replacing it with a hiking and biking trail.
My two cents: I defer to C.J. Summers, who sums up the [...]

Congratulations, Peorians.
You did it. You stood your ground and demanded that local government conduct business in public and for the public’s benefit. Many, many months ago, Peoria School District 150 and the Peoria Park Board decided amongst themselves and outside the public’s scrutiny to move a successful neighborhood school out of the neighborhood to a [...]

Peoria City Councilman Gary Sandberg lived up to his reputation as a gadfly by being the only member of the council to vote against an agreement to let the Illinois Department of Transportation hire Central Railgroup Construction Services to adjust an existing railroad crossing at Allen Road. It’s all part of IDOTs improvement of Allen [...]

The City of Peoria has filed a response to a motion to get the Surface Transportation Board to reconsider it’s decision that would the Kellar Branch to be demolished and greplaced with an extension to the Rock Island Trail.
The filing includes this paragraph:
“The connection of the Kellar Branch to the former Union Pacific rail line [...]

I’n no fan of the Journal Star’s editorial page. Time and again, the newspaper prints editorials that cross the line from opinion and into the relm of deceptive propaganda. There are simply some issues that this paper will not cover fairly on the front page or the editorial page.
The Kellar Branch story is one of [...]

There’s something missing from today’s Journal Star article about the Surface Transportation Board’s decision to not close the Kellar Branch:
The city and park district have only been trying to get the deal done for a decade or so. But on Friday, the STB put the project back on hold, based on recent complaints from Carver [...]

Leave it to C.J. Summers to be on top of the Kellar Branch closure case. He’s reporting that the Surface Transporation agrees with Carver Lumber that the Kellar Branch cannot be closed until the City of Peoria finishes work on a new line allowing the lumber company to receive deliveries. The decision states:
The Board’s decision [...]

The Peoria Rails Yahoo Group is a good place to go for news, information and commentary about the controversy over the efforts to turn the Kellar Branch rail line into a segment of the Rock Island Trail. The buzz these days is about Carver Lumber’s efforts to get the Surface Transportation to overturn earlier decisions [...]