Great Lakes Basin Transportation, the firm planning a freight train line from Wisconsin to LaPorte, has missed two deadlines to appeal and is “officially over,” an opposition lawyer said.
After the federal Surface Transportation Board’s Aug. 31 rejection of GLBT’s application for a freight train line across three states, Great Lakes had two options for an appeal.
Great Lakes officials had 20 days to file a petition for reconsideration with the transportation board, and 60 days to file an appeal in federal court, a spokesman with the federal transportation board said.
By Friday, both deadlines had passed without an appeal, said Thomas McFarland, a Chicago attorney representing opposition groups in three states that came together against Great Lakes’ plans, including Residents Against the Invasion of Land by Eminent Domain, or RAILED, which is based in Porter County.
“I’m reasonably certain they have not filed because I would be entitled to a copy” of any appeals, McFarland said, adding he had not received any. “Now it’s officially over.”
Great Lakes founder and chairman Frank Patton declined to comment on what his future plans might be. He has said he was interested in developing a private toll road that would run the approximate route of the proposed Illiana Toll Road, a plan that took state legislators and transportation officials by surprise when they learned of it earlier this year.
The freight train line proposal, as filed with the federal board, can no longer move forward, McFarland said.
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“They might well dream up something else, but I doubt it because they were pretty well beaten,” McFarland said.
In a five-page ruling rejecting Great Lakes’ application, the transportation board outlined the growing opposition to the proposal; the lack of accurate financial information for the board to examine in weighing the proposal’s merits; and the “fundamentally flawed” financial information filed by Great Lakes.
“GLBT’s current assets of $151 are so clearly deficient for purposes of constructing a 261-mile rail line that the Board will not proceed with this application given the impacts on stakeholders and the demands upon Board resources,” the ruling stated.
Great Lakes proposed a freight train line from Milton, Wis., into LaPorte County. The line would have sliced through southern Lake and Porter counties.
Patton proposed funding the $2.8 billion freight line privately, and he said it would relieve congestion through Chicago’s clogged rail yard, as well as take trucks off of local highways.
The plan was to serve the six Class 1 railroads going through Chicago, though two of them said they would not use it and the remaining four never committed to supporting the project.
In a related development, James Wilson has stepped down as Great Lakes president and vice-chairman. According to the website for his transportation consulting business, J.T. Wilson Company, he held that post from June 2014 through last month.
Financial information filed by Great Lakes with the transportation board showed Wilson had a 5 percent financial interest as a stockholder in the company.
“James Wilson has resigned from Great Lakes Basin Transportation to pursue other opportunities,” said Mike Blaszak, an attorney for Great Lakes, declining further comment.
Wilson did not return a call seeking comment.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.