The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway plans to install technology that will alert first responders and motorists in Elgin and elsewhere to when trains are to pass through town and where there are blocked crossings, Fire Chief Robb Cagann said.
Wisconsin-based LinqThingz is working with the railroad company to install sensors that will monitor trains and railroad crossings along Metra’s Milwaukee District West tracks in Elgin, Bartlett, Bensenville, Hanover Park, Itasca, Roselle, Schaumburg, Wood Dale and DuPage County, he said.
The sensors will inform firefighters and police in real time about where a freight trains is located, how far they are from a crossing and how many minutes or seconds it will take to cross, Cagann said at Wednesday night’s Elgin City Council meeting.
“You’ll be able to see the train coming and see time counting down,” he said.
The communities that are to receive the technology are part of the Railway Safety & Monitoring Coalition, formerly known as the Stop CPKC Coalition, which formed in 2022 to oppose the $31 billion merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.
Council members approved an agreement for the sensors with the new company, known as CPKC, as well as a new intergovernmental agreement with the Railway Safety & Monitoring Coalition. Under the agreement, each community pays $40,000 a year to cover the cost of legal issues and public relations.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board authorized the merger in March 2023, creating a single-line railroad connecting Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, but it also required the new company to conduct a seven-year monitoring period and employ measures to mitigate potential negative impacts of additional train traffic.
LinqThingz’s advanced warning system is a mitigation tool meant to help municipalities deal with the increased number — and longer — freight trains coming through their towns.
If paramedics have a patient who needs to go to the hospital, they will be able to see where and when a train is due to arrive and decide what route to take to avoid it, the fire chief said.
“It allows us to have the flexibility to make decisions,” Cagann said.
LinqThingz is upgrading its online technology to that it can offer a mobile app and have the train traffic information appear on the city’s public portal, he said.
The sensors work in cold weather without any issues, Cagann said. “The nice thing about this is CPKC is paying this bill. Anything that happens, (the company) will come out and fix it,” he said.
CPKC will fund the system until April 2030, at which point the coalition communities would have to pick up the cost.
Freight trains closing railroad crossings for an extended period will impact the fire department’s response, but “we don’t have any control” over it, Cagann said. “This is the best thing we have coming our way.”
Elgin City Councilman Steve Thoren said he hasn’t noticed more freight trains coming through town or that they are longer than they had been previously.
Cagann agreed that there hasn’t been a huge impact so far but how many freight trains might be added in the future is unknown. “CPKC isn’t always forthcoming with their information,” he said.
“It has been a challenge,” Mayor Dave Kaptain said of the merger, which city officials did not support.
As time goes on and more daily freight trains are added, there will be more delays at crossings, he said.
“It’s just going to be a fact of life for us,” Kaptain said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.