The facts
Every serious question is still unanswered.
A twenty-mile railroad through eleven communities, 144 trains a day, and not one safety, traffic, noise, vibration, environmental or health study has been completed or shared with the people who live along it.
We are for public transit to O’Hare. Asking what a project would do to the people beside it is not opposition to transit. It is the question any project of this size has to answer. See the alternatives →
- 144Trains a day, one every 7½ minutes
- 96 minOf closed road a day at each crossing left at grade
- 4 a.m.First train, every day of the week
- 0Studies completed or shared
Where we live
Protecting our communities
Eleven communities sit along this corridor. Thousands of homes, schools, parks, businesses and a Level II Trauma Center are within a few hundred feet of the track.
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Emergency response No study completed
The Fifth Avenue crossing in Melrose Park sits beside Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, a Level II Trauma Center. Gates down for forty seconds at a time, roughly 144 times a day, would block southbound access. No one has modelled what that does to an ambulance. -
Safety at street level No study completed
Crossings at First and Fifth Avenue in Melrose Park, George Street in River Grove, and Belmont and Fullerton in Franklin Park would stay as they are. Fullerton is beside a playground. At Madison Street in Forest Park, the developers said on October 1 that the road would be separated from the track. They have not shown how, or what that construction would do to Forest Park’s main commercial street. -
Traffic No study completed
First Avenue is a major trucking route and a state highway. It has not been analysed for what happens when the gates come down every seven and a half minutes, eighteen hours a day. -
Noise and vibration No study completed
The World Health Organization counts 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. as night and recommends railway noise then be held to 44 decibels. Freight would run until 4 a.m. and the first passenger train would leave at 4 a.m. The developers describe the trains as whisper quiet but have published no measurements.
What we share
Protecting our forest preserves
The line would cross Thatcher Woods at grade and run beside the Des Plaines River. Thatcher Woods is 245 acres of floodplain forest, oak savanna and prairie that Cook County set aside to protect, used year round by people from across the county.
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Habitat and wildlife No study completed
The Forest Preserves of Cook County count more than 250 native plant species in Thatcher Woods and at least 45 species of nesting birds, among them the wood thrush, scarlet tanager, wood duck and kingfisher. Great blue herons and great egrets feed in its lagoon. Deer and painted turtles live along the river. The developers say they have identified the wildlife in the area. No breeding bird survey, endangered species survey or habitat fragmentation study has been done. -
A migration route No study completed
The Des Plaines River corridor is part of the Mississippi Flyway, one of the continent’s principal bird migration routes, and the birds that use it are protected under federal law. The line would put a train every seven and a half minutes, eighteen hours a day, with freight and track work overnight, straight through it. -
Construction in the floodplain No study completed
Eliminating the River Forest crossings would mean a 15-foot berm beside the woods and the river, sloping back to ground “in the forest preserve,” and an elevated structure over Thatcher Avenue, with piers, staging and access inside the preserve. Fill in a floodplain displaces water, and the water has to go somewhere. No environmental review, drainage or hydrology analysis has been shared. -
Runoff and contamination No analysis published
Nothing has been published on track runoff into a floodplain where the water table is already high, on oil and lubricant seepage into groundwater, on metal from rail wear, or on the herbicides used to keep vegetation off a right of way. -
Carbon footprint No analysis published
New track, a 15-foot berm, a structure over Thatcher Avenue and a 90-foot flyover near O’Hare would all have to be built. A project of this scale is estimated to release on the order of a million metric tons of carbon dioxide in construction alone, with tens of thousands of tons more in maintenance over its life. No life cycle analysis has been published. -
Wildlife crossings No commitment made
The developers have referred to wildlife tunnels. No design, location, commitment or study of their effectiveness has been published.
What we pay
Protecting public transit and taxpayer dollars
We are for public transit to O’Hare. Our concern is a private line that would draw riders, revenue and public credit away from the systems this region already depends on, with the public carrying the risk.
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Riders and revenue No analysis published
The Blue Line reaches O’Hare from dozens of stations for $2.50, and Metra runs there too. No analysis has been published of what a private express would take from either. -
Public money, private profit No public accounting offered
Chicago has leased public assets to private investors before. The parking meters and the Skyway were each valued by the city’s own Inspector General and auditors at close to a billion dollars less than what the public gave up. A co-founder of the O’Hare Flyer later ran the Skyway. -
What it would cost the public No financing plan published
The developers call the project privately financed and have also said they intend to apply for a Federal loan, once built, that would replace about three quarters of the financing at Treasury rates. If ridership falls short and a taxpayer-backed loan goes bad, the public takes the loss. The same program is open to Metra, the CTA and state and local governments. Florida’s Brightline, the closest comparable private passenger railroad, carries more than $5.5 billion in debt; in September 2026 it closed a restructuring deal giving it about $490 million in new capital to lower that debt.
Sources: the developers’ statements and their September 3, 2026 presentation; WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines, 2018; CTA and Metra published fares and schedules; Chicago Inspector General and city audits on the parking meter and Skyway leases; Forest Preserves of Cook County, Thatcher Woods; Chicago Bird Alliance; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Treaty Act; Forest Park community meeting, October 1, 2026; Bloomberg and the Bond Buyer on Brightline’s restructuring, 2026; Associated Press, September 25, 2026.
Officials are asking the same questions
A Cook County commissioner, a regional council of thirty-seven municipalities, a village mayor and a village board have all written to the sponsors. On September 28, 2026, the River Forest Village Board sent a four-page list of fifty questions covering ownership and financing, right-of-way negotiations with each host railroad, ridership methodology, gate-down times, modelled emergency response times, noise measurement standards, tree removal in Thatcher Woods, and who pays to remove the structures if the service fails.
None of it has been answered.
Sources: letters from Cook County Commissioner Maggie Trevor, the West Central Municipal Conference, Mayor Ronald Serpico of Melrose Park, and the River Forest Village Board.
