What Amtrak Is Planning

Amtrak plans to relocate its Chicago maintenance operations from the 14th Street Yard in the South Loop to a new Midwest Maintenance Facility at the Canal Street Yard near Bridgeport, Armour Square and Chinatown.

This is not simply a proposal to run trains through an existing rail corridor.

Amtrak has described a new approximately 138,000-square-foot maintenance building, four stories tall and five tracks wide, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The facility would be used to inspect, clean, service, fuel and maintain Amtrak trains serving Chicago and the Midwest.

Amtrak says its existing Chicago maintenance facilities are undersized, fragmented and unable to efficiently accommodate its current and future fleet.

We do not dispute Amtrak's need for modern maintenance facilities.

We dispute putting this one beside our homes.

To be clear about what Amtrak is proposing: it would move this massive 24/7 industrial operation from an industrial corridor where only about 26 people live within 500 feet to a densely populated area with homes, schools and parks. More than 6,700 people live within 500 feet of the proposed Canal Street site, and Amtrak says the nearest residential structures are approximately 120 feet away.

That is the fundamental problem with this proposal.

Amtrak should stop the Canal Street project and locate this facility in an appropriate nonresidential area.

26 People vs. 6,741

The difference between the two locations is stark.

According to figures cited publicly by 11th Ward Ald. Nicole Lee:

26 people live within 500 feet of Amtrak's existing maintenance yard.

6,741 people live within 500 feet of the proposed Canal Street location.

Amtrak's own project information says the nearest residential structures would be approximately 120 feet from the proposed facility.

This isn't a small difference in population density. It is a fundamental change in where Amtrak proposes to place a major industrial operation.

Go See the Existing Operation

One of the best ways to understand what is being proposed is to see Amtrak's existing maintenance operation yourself.

From the north side of the 18th Street bridge near Canal Street, you can look down into Amtrak's existing 14th Street Yard.

Take a look.

You can see the trains, maintenance buildings, equipment, tracks and surrounding infrastructure. You can also see the enormous, building-sized fuel-storage tank currently used at the facility.

It is difficult to appreciate the scale of this type of industrial infrastructure until you are standing there looking at it.

Then look at what surrounds the existing operation.

Now travel south to 33rd and Canal.

Look at the homes. Look at Armour Square Park. Look at the surrounding neighborhoods.

Now imagine a major industrial maintenance and fueling operation running there 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Why move an industrial maintenance and fueling operation of this nature from an industrial corridor to a densely populated area?

This Is Also a Fueling Facility

Amtrak has confirmed that the proposed Canal Street facility would include train refueling operations.

This isn't simply a building where trains will occasionally be repaired. It is a round-the-clock industrial complex where trains will be inspected, cleaned, serviced, maintained and fueled.

At Amtrak's September 17 community meeting, a project map displayed at the meeting appeared to show diesel fuel-storage infrastructure associated with Lot G.

Fueling operations introduce additional concerns involving diesel storage and transfer, spills, fire safety, air quality and emergency response.

But the larger point is simpler:

Why put an industrial fueling operation this close to people's homes at all?

The appropriate way to protect residents from the impacts and risks of a major industrial maintenance and fueling facility is not to place one beside thousands of residents and attempt to mitigate it afterward.

It is to locate the facility in an appropriate nonresidential area.

Why Is Amtrak Moving?

Amtrak says its existing Chicago maintenance facilities no longer provide the space and configuration necessary for its current and future fleet.

But relocating Amtrak would also free approximately 47 acres of valuable South Loop property for private redevelopment.

The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that Shore Capital Partners, founded by billionaire investor and White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia, is under contract to acquire Amtrak's South Loop property after Amtrak relocates.

Ishbia is also a shareholder in Canal Edge LLC, the developer working with Amtrak to finance and deliver the replacement maintenance facility.

Canal Edge is simultaneously pursuing The Railyards, a massive mixed-use redevelopment of the South Loop property that could include a new Chicago White Sox stadium.

These developments cannot simply be viewed in isolation.

A private redevelopment depends upon Amtrak vacating its existing property. Vacating that property requires Amtrak's maintenance operations to go somewhere else.

And the proposed somewhere else is beside our neighborhoods.

Why should thousands of Chicago residents absorb the industrial consequences of freeing valuable land for private redevelopment?

The Scale of the Project

The Federal Railroad Administration has awarded Amtrak up to $572 million for the Midwest Maintenance Facility.

Federal funding will be supplemented by private capital and financing led by Canal Edge LLC. Amtrak has described the maintenance facility as an approximately $900 million project.

The FRA has separately awarded up to $87 million to rehabilitate or replace approximately 17 aging viaducts, bridges and related structures at the Canal Street Yard.

Amtrak has also received $37.25 million to rehabilitate the South Branch Chicago River Bridge and develop plans for its eventual replacement.

Amtrak has said construction could begin in fall 2026 and development of the maintenance facility would take approximately 18 months.

This is not a minor modification to an existing rail yard.

It is a massive investment in a new permanent industrial facility.

Getting the location right matters.

There Is No Mitigating the Fundamental Problem

Residents are increasingly being told that the conversation should turn toward "mitigation": sound walls, landscaping, lighting controls, operational changes and other measures intended to reduce the facility's effects.

That skips the most important question.

Should a facility of this scale be located beside thousands of residents in the first place?

Sound walls may reduce some noise. They do not eliminate 24-hour industrial operations.

Lighting designs may reduce spillover. They do not make a four-story maintenance facility disappear.

Operational changes may reduce some emissions or idling. They do not eliminate the impacts of fueling, servicing and moving trains around the clock.

Landscaping can change what something looks like.

It cannot change what it is.

There is no meaningful way to mitigate the fundamental problem with this proposal:

The location is wrong.

Residents should not be asked to negotiate over how much noise, pollution, vibration, industrial traffic, lighting and disruption we are willing to accept when those impacts can be avoided by choosing an appropriate nonresidential location.

You don't mitigate an unacceptable location. You choose an appropriate nonresidential location.

Environmental Review Does Not Make This Location Acceptable

The Federal Railroad Administration determined that the project qualified for a Categorical Exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act, rather than requiring an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement.

Residents have serious questions about that determination, particularly given the scale of the proposed facility, its 24/7 operations, fueling activities and proximity to thousands of residents.

Those records matter for understanding how this project was approved and holding the responsible agencies accountable.

But our opposition to this location does not depend upon what another study ultimately says.

No environmental document changes the basic geography.

No report moves the homes.

No analysis changes 6,741 residents within 500 feet into 26.

No mitigation plan turns a 24/7 industrial maintenance and fueling operation into an appropriate neighbor for a densely populated residential community.

The answer is not a better study of how to put this facility here.

The answer is to put it in an appropriate nonresidential area.

September 17: The Community Said No

On September 17, hundreds of residents packed Amtrak's community meeting.

The message from the community was unmistakable:

Find another site.

Residents from Bridgeport, Armour Square, Chinatown and surrounding communities challenged the location of the facility and raised concerns about environmental impacts, safety, noise, air quality, fueling and the process that allowed the project to advance this far.

The meeting was not a request for a prettier sound wall.

It was not a request for better landscaping.

It was not an invitation to negotiate over how much industrial activity our neighborhoods should tolerate.

The community is asking Amtrak to abandon the Canal Street location and put this facility in a nonresidential area.

This Is Not Anti-Amtrak

We support passenger rail.

We support investment in Amtrak.

We support modern maintenance facilities.

We support good union jobs.

And we support locating heavy industrial operations in places appropriate for heavy industrial operations.

Those positions are entirely compatible.

Chicago is a major industrial and transportation city. There are places where a facility like this can operate without placing thousands of residents immediately beside a round-the-clock maintenance and fueling operation.

Amtrak should choose one of them.

Stop the Bridgeport Facility

There should be no misunderstanding about what this community is asking for.

We are not asking for better mitigation.

We are not asking for a nicer design.

We are not asking for more landscaping.

We are not asking Amtrak to explain how it intends to make a 24/7 industrial maintenance and fueling facility more tolerable beside our homes.

We are asking Amtrak to stop the Canal Street project and relocate the proposed facility to an appropriate nonresidential area away from people's homes.

Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration should halt work toward construction at Canal Street and pursue a nonresidential site.

Modernize Amtrak.

Build the facility.

Create the jobs.

Put it where people don't live.