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  • - [Reporter] $3 trillion worth of goods

  • travels through the Chicago region every year.

  • (train horn honks)

  • 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,

  • the rest of the nation starts sneezing.

  • Really, because so much freight moves through Chicago,

  • it can have a big impact.

  • - [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 national economy

  • and the ripple effects of a potential shutdown.

  • - In the Chicago region,

  • we have a very multimodal dynamic system.

  • We have 10 interstate highways.

  • Six of the seven biggest railroad companies

  • have lines in the Chicago region.

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

  • More than 7.6 million freight cargo containers

  • were moved in Chicago in 2021.

  • That's up from 6.1 million in 2009.

  • The area is an important hub

  • 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.

  • In recent years, the city's rail yards

  • have been the point of severe bottlenecks

  • as the supply chain choked up nationally.

  • Chicago sees about 25% of all freight trains

  • and 50% of all intermodal trains,

  • or the ones that carry shipping containers

  • or trailers in the US.

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

  • to the other often comes through Chicago

  • because it has to be switched off to another railroad.

  • - [Reporter] That's because six

  • of the seven major Class I North American railroads

  • converge in Chicago.

  • - Railroads began growing

  • in the latter part of the 19th century.

  • The East Coast railroads pushed west.

  • The West Coast railroads pushed east,

  • and they met in Chicago.

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

  • in the region's $645 billion economy.

  • Local transportation and logistics firms

  • 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,

  • they're all dependent on goods

  • being delivered on a daily basis.

  • - [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,

  • our suburban commuter rail

  • runs on all of the freight rail lines.

  • Those trains, the maintenance of the track

  • is also maintained by the freight rail workers.

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

  • - It's felt nationwide.

  • A railroad strike would have a significant effect

  • on the local economy.

  • - [Reporter] A nationwide rail worker strike

  • averted by Congress in early December

  • nearly stilled the region's bustling railways.

  • - There was worry in the Chicago region

  • about a possible strike.

  • A lot of our jobs, a lot of our businesses

  • are based on that import-export model,

  • and they would all be impacted by a potential strike.

  • - [Reporter] That could mean

  • up to 1,300 stopped trains every day.

  • About 500 of those are freight trains

  • and 800 are passenger trains.

  • - 60% of the jobs in the Chicago region

  • have to be done in person.

  • All of those people, if they are traditionally relying

  • on transit and suburban commuter rails

  • to get into the places that they need to go,

  • they just wouldn't be able to,

  • and our roads can't handle 60% of people

  • choosing to drive over taking transit.

  • - [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.

  • Bad weather and snowstorms

  • have impacted service in the past.

  • In 1999, a blizzard shut down the rail system,

  • affecting operations for months.

  • - You had goods sitting on the railroad lines

  • like soybeans and corn that were just going bad

  • and so they weren't even able

  • to deliver many of the shipments

  • that were sitting there waiting.

  • - [Reporter] As a result, the region launched CREATE,

  • a plan to eliminate rail bottlenecks.

  • Still, another harsh winter struck in 2014.

  • Traffic snarled, sending delays throughout the system.

  • - Trains couldn't get in here,

  • they couldn't get out of Chicago.

  • The whole system kind of seized up.

  • There were trains stacked up kind of all over the country,

  • all over North America

  • waiting to get somewhere and they couldn't.

  • - [Reporter] Goods like cars, coal, and fertilizer

  • were all affected by the stoppages.

  • It took warm weather for traffic to flow efficiently again.

  • (train couplers clanking)

  • That national gridlock made it clear that railroads,

  • including Chicago's, are vital in the supply chain.

  • - Railroads in Chicago help keep the economy moving.

  • It kind of keeps the rest of the country moving as well.

  • When the rail system has trouble,

  • the rest of that transportation infrastructure

  • suffers as well.

  • (bright instrumental music)

- [Reporter] $3 trillion worth of goods

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