The Great Lakes Basin Transportation has submitted its railroad hub proposal to a federal review board. The GLBR proposal is to build a 261-mile freight line bypass around Chicago. The year-long talks have been presented to several groups.
The application was presented Monday to the Surface Transportation Board. A 77-page document will reviewed by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The GLBR is the largest single freight railroad project proposed for the Chicago region in over a century.
Details of the project, including GLBT's favored route from the LaPorte , Indiana area around Chicago to southeast Wisconsin, are the same as in previous filings, according to Frank Patton.

The railroad would have 244 miles of mainline track and 17 miles of branch lines, including one connecting with the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad at Kingsbury. It would have 26 connections with other railroads along the route, including two in Lake County and six in Porter and LaPorte counties.

Construction would take three years to complete, with parts of the line in operation after two years, according to the company.

The full project would cost an estimated $2.8 billion, according to the application, though addition of a contingency fund to cover unexpected expenses would increase that.

So far, 24 stockholders have "contributed funds, services or both during the project's startup phase," GLBT stated in its application.

94.1 WGFA