Contact your officials

Make your letter in a minute.

Heartfelt personal emails, mailed letters, and direct phone calls are the best way to be heard. If you need inspiration, our ready-to-send templates can be customized by your specific concerns.

  1. 1Find your officials. Enter your street address and pick who to write to.
  2. 2Write your letter. Fill in a few boxes; the letter builds itself, addressed to them.
  3. 3Email it, then mail it. Open it in your mail app, then print a copy to mail. Send both.
  4. 4Copy the railroads. CSX, Canadian National and Union Pacific own the track. Tell them too.
Want us to feature your letter on our website?

We publish letters residents write on our Community Voices page, so reporters and officials can see what people who live along this route actually said.

Emailing it? BCC info@stoptheohareflyer.org when you send.

We’ll include your name and neighborhood unless you ask us not to.

Email us your letter
Step 1 Find your officials. Enter your address and see who represents you, from your village board up to Washington.

Enter your street address and this lists the people who represent you at the village or city, county, state, and Federal level, with a way to reach each one. Choose one and the letter in step 2 is addressed to them. We strongly recommend CCing each of the railroads who currently own the tracks along the proposed route. Give them a reason to say no, too. Your address is sent to the US Census Bureau to find your districts and is not stored or shared.

Can't find your address? Try Ballotpedia's lookup or the Illinois State Board of Elections district locator. Officials listed as of September 2026; confirm before you write.

Who decidesThe people and agencies whose decisions this project needs, and why each one matters.
  1. Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
    Chair Tom Kotarac and a 20-member board. Oversees funding for Metra, the CTA and Pace
    Metra’s plan for trains every 30 minutes to O’Hare, Regional Rail 1.0, has no funding yet. Ask NITA to make it a priority. The governor, the Chicago mayor and the Cook County Board President each appoint five of its 20 members, and the five collar counties appoint the rest.
  2. Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago City Council
    City of Chicago
    The developers are seeking a City ordinance in the first half of 2027. The mayor also appoints five of NITA’s 20 board members. Write to the mayor and your alderperson.
  3. Governor JB Pritzker
    Governor of Illinois
    He signed the law that created NITA and appoints five of its 20 board members. Ask him to make sure Regional Rail 1.0 is funded.
  4. Illinois Commerce Commission
    State agency
    It has sole authority over every rail crossing in Illinois. Any crossing on this route that is rebuilt, closed or separated needs its order, and the order decides who pays.
  5. Canadian National
    Owns the track through the western suburbs and north to O’Hare
    By the developers’ own account, there is no agreement with Canadian National, and any second track would need its explicit consent.
  6. CSX
    Owns the main line west from downtown to Madison Street
    The developers say CSX has signed a letter of intent. It is not binding.
  7. Union Pacific
    Owns track at the downtown end
    Union Pacific has said no agreement has been reached. No public email address, so write by mail or use its contact form.
  8. Chicago Department of Aviation
    Commissioner Michael McMurray. Runs O’Hare for the City of Chicago
    The line would end at Terminal 2 and cross the airfield on a 90-foot flyover. None of that happens on airport land without the City’s agreement.
  9. Toni Preckwinkle
    Cook County Board President and President of the Forest Preserves of Cook County
    The line would cross Thatcher Woods, which the Forest Preserves own and manage. She also appoints five of NITA’s 20 board members.
  10. Senate President Don Harmon and Speaker Chris Welch
    Leaders of the Illinois Senate and House
    They lead the two chambers of the General Assembly, and both represent west suburban districts.
  11. La Shawn Ford
    State Representative, 8th District, and Democratic nominee for Congress in the 7th District
    The 7th Congressional District covers much of the route. A position he takes now carries into Congress.
  12. Senators Durbin and Duckworth and your U.S. Representative
    Federal
    The developers say they intend to apply for a federal loan once the line is built. Enter your address above to find your representative.
  13. Federal regulators: the FAA and the Surface Transportation Board
    Not yet
    Both act on formal filings, and the developers have not filed with either one. When they do, there will usually be a public comment period, and we will post how to take part.
  14. Your village board
    Every community on the route
    Village boards have already written to the developers. A full room and a recorded vote put your village on the record. Enter your address above.
Step 2 Write your letter. Fill in a few boxes. The letter writes itself, and you can edit every word of it.

Fill in the boxes and your letter about the O’Hare Flyer/Great Western Railroad writes itself. Edit it freely before you send; officials notice when a letter sounds like a person.

Your details

Your letter

Anything in [brackets] is a blank for you to fill in.

Step 3 Email it. Then mail it. Send it both ways. Two copies of the same letter, two chances to be logged.

Offices keep track of what constituents tell them, however it arrives. What makes a letter count is that it comes from someone they represent, says plainly where you stand, and is one of many. Email it now, then print a copy and mail it. Send both.

Email

Open it in your mail app with the letter and subject already filled in, or copy it and paste it yourself.

Canadian National and CSX are copied automatically. They own the track the route would use, and by the sponsors’ own account they have no agreement with either. Add Union Pacific through their contact form in step 4. Letters to NITA are not copied to the railroads.

Email this letter
Send it to
[Choose an official in step 1, or type their email in step 2]

Print and mail

This prints just the letter, with your name, the date, and the address block already in place. Sign it above your name.

Mail it to
[Choose an official in step 1, or type the address in step 2]

Want to know when to write next?

We’ll tell you when it’s time to speak up.

Step 4 Copy the railroads. CSX, Canadian National and Union Pacific own the track. Names, addresses and a phone script.

The O’Hare Flyer cannot run without agreements from the three railroads that own the track along the route. By the sponsors’ own account they have a letter of intent with one of them and no agreement with the other two. These companies have no stake in the marketing, and a letter from a resident on their line is the kind of thing that gets read. Give them a reason to say no, too.

Canadian National and CSX can be emailed directly. Union Pacific does not publish an address, so the way in there is their contact form. Send the same letter, and post a printed copy to the address below.

  • Union Pacific Railroad

    Owns the corridor at the downtown end, including the former Global One site the sponsors say they would use. Their community contact for Illinois is Tom Evenson, Senior Director of Public Affairs. UP does not provide a public email address, so follow the link below to submit directly through their contact form.

    Tom Evenson
    Union Pacific Railroad
    123 North Wacker Drive, Suite 2550
    Chicago, IL 60606
    (312) 777-2037

    Email Tom Evenson →

  • Canadian National Railway

    Owns the corridor through the western suburbs, from Forest Park out toward O’Hare. Their community contact is Kevin Donahue.

    Kevin Donahue
    Canadian National Railway
    17641 South Ashland Avenue
    Homewood, IL 60430

    contact@cn.ca

    Also worth writing to, at CN corporate:
    Patrick Lortie, Senior Vice President
    Patrick Whitehead, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
    Melissa Cotton, Head of Government Relations
    935 de la Gauchetière Street West, 16th Floor
    Montreal, Quebec H3B 2M9, Canada

    Canadian National contact page →

  • CSX Transportation

    Owns the mainline the route would follow west from downtown to Madison Street. Their community contact for this region is Tom Livingston, Vice President of Public Affairs.

    Tom Livingston
    CSX Transportation
    1700 W. 167th Street
    Calumet City, IL 60409
    (708) 832-2169

    tom_livingston@csx.com

    CSX contact page →

Your letter already ends with a CC line naming all three, so an official can see who else has been told.

Calling works too

A phone call takes two minutes and is harder to file away than an email. You do not need a script, but this is enough:

  1. “My name is [your name] and I live at [your street] in [your community].”
  2. “I am calling about the proposed O’Hare Flyer passenger service on your line through my community.”
  3. “I want to register my opposition, and I would like to know whether your company has reached any agreement with the sponsors.”

Union Pacific, Tom Evenson — (312) 777-2037
CSX, Tom Livingston — (708) 832-2169
Canadian National — number to be confirmed

Whoever you speak to, note their name and what they said, and tell us. What the railroads say to residents is worth recording.