Name: Why Chicago’s Rail Hub Is So Vital to the National Economy | WSJ
Uploaded: 2023-02-12T13:13:40.000Z
Duration: 5 min 1 s
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travels through the Chicago region every year.

Much of that is transported on trains like these,

making Chicago the busiest rail hub in the US.

- We like to say when Chicago has a cold,

Really, because so much freight moves through Chicago,

- [Reporter] And a stoppage possibly caused

by a nationwide rail worker strike or bad weather

would have all those trains at a standstill.

Here's why running railroads are so important to Chicago

and the ripple effects of a potential shutdown.

we have a very multimodal dynamic system.

Six of the seven biggest railroad companies

- [Reporter] That system pushes enormous amounts of freight.

More than 7.6 million freight cargo containers

in the intricate nationwide logistics web that gets goods

all across the country, and the region's railways

are particularly important strings in the web.

have been the point of severe bottlenecks

as the supply chain choked up nationally.

Chicago sees about 25% of all freight trains

or the ones that carry shipping containers

- Freight that has to go from one end of the country

because it has to be switched off to another railroad.

of the seven major Class I North American railroads

- [Reporter] The freight rail industry plays a huge role

provided $13.8 billion in services in 2021.

- The diverse economy here really means that a number

of the different types of industries that we have,

whether it's manufacturing, whether it's the retail trades,

the construction trades, the wholesale trades,

- [Reporter] And over a quarter of the region's jobs

are in industries that rely on cargo transport,

including rail, but it's not just freight

that would be incapacitated by a rail stoppage.

Public transit depends on the railroads, too.

- In the Chicago region, our Metra system,

Those trains, the maintenance of the track

is also maintained by the freight rail workers.

- [Reporter] So if the trains ever stopped in Chicago...

A railroad strike would have a significant effect

- [Reporter] A nationwide rail worker strike

nearly stilled the region's bustling railways.

A lot of our jobs, a lot of our businesses

and they would all be impacted by a potential strike.

All of those people, if they are traditionally relying

to get into the places that they need to go,

- [Reporter] Leading up to a possible strike in September,

regional commuter rail Metra warned of service disruptions.

But that isn't the only thing that could stop trains.

In 1999, a blizzard shut down the rail system,

- You had goods sitting on the railroad lines

like soybeans and corn that were just going bad

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why Chicago’s Rail Hub Is So Vital to the National Economy | WSJ

potential

significant

vital

eliminate