Feds grant railroad’s request for time out

The federal agency overseeing the environmental review for Great Lakes Basin Transportation’s proposed freight railroad looping around Chicago has granted a request to suspend work while GLBT continues its own planning.

In a letter dated Tuesday, the director of the Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Assessment told GLBT that the office would suspend its work, which is required by the National Environmental Policy Act, despite the fact “that stopping and starting the NEPA review process often adds time and expense to the process and increases the burden on all stakeholders…” Please click here to read Andrew Steele’s story in the Times.