A Canadian National freight train stops traffic along U.S. Route 14 on Aug. 6, 2026, in Barrington. An underpass is being constructed at this location to allow traffic to flow better. The underpass is expected to be completed in late 2027. | Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune
By John Lippert | For the Chicago Tribune
When Karen Darch started agitating in 2007 for an underpass so U.S. Route 14 can pass beneath the Canadian National railroad tracks in Barrington, she had six children and no grandkids.
Nineteen years later, as workers are shattering the affluent quiet of her suburban street by pounding retaining walls for the underpass into place, she has seven grandchildren.
Darch says she can’t say how many grandchildren she’ll have when the half-mile, $94 million underpass is finally complete, hopefully by the end of next year.
But now, Darch is confronting a problem that could aggravate her grandchildren for decades to come.
That problem is a new round of mergers that’s putting the ownership structure of North American railroads through a blender and triggering a prolonged period of tension and uncertainty.
Union Pacific, in tandem with its $85 billion takeover bid for Norfolk Southern, has agreed to start running more trains over Canadian National’s suburban Chicago network. At the outset, this will include rerouting some trains now running through inner-city Chicago.
Former Barrington Village President Karen Darch stands near construction for the new U.S. Route 14 underpass on Aug. 6, 2026, in Barrington. Darch spent years seeking solutions like this underpass to rail-induced traffic problems. The underpass will be routed under freight train rails where currently traffic gets blocked several times a day. | Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune
Darch, an attorney who served as Barrington’s village president for 20 years until last year, says she believes that sooner or later, the railroads will build a second freight track through Barrington, a suburb 35 miles northwest of Chicago. That’s because Canadian National has already spent years double-tracking the line to within 10 miles south of Barrington, she said.
In theory, rail experts say, this second track could mean dozens of additional Canadian National and Union Pacific freight trains rolling each day through downtown Barrington at 40 miles an hour, up from 20 currently.
That’s in addition to the 50,000 cars and trucks that converge on Barrington each day, and 800 daily school bus trips. Barrington also attracts 70 Metra commuter trains per day. Each of these blocks the main north-south and east-west streets through downtown for a few minutes as passengers come and go.
“If they build another track, there’s going to be a much greater impact than we’re feeling now, so more has to happen in response. We may need another underpass, or maybe two other underpasses,” said Darch in an interview last month. “And a greater portion of the funding should come from businesses that are benefiting from traveling the rail.”
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