[ardecila]

^I'm not as offended by this as you seem to be. More like cautiously optimistic.

It's true that, for 150 years, the city's lifeblood has been in transferring cargo and passengers from one mode to another. This proposal would allow freight rail to bypass the city entirely. I don't view it as a sprawl generator so much as a piece of infrastructure that could simply render much of Chicago's behemoth freight rail system irrelevant.

That may have spillover effects in terms of job displacement, but maybe we should view this as creative destruction rather than catastrophe. A Chicago with less freight traffic is a Chicago with room to expand commuter rail and public transportation, and perhaps a Chicago that doesn't require the multi-billion dollar CREATE project.

It's likely that any new railyards and logistical facilities built alongside this rail line will be highly automated, so they'll probably generate fewer jobs and less sprawl than you might think. Also, the path of this line will be far enough outside the bleeding edge of Chicago that any new growth will probably accrue to existing towns like Rockford, Rochelle and Kankakee... many of them places that are crying out for growth.