DECISION (6-5-23): CITY OF PEORIA, ILL - DISCONTINUANCE OF SERVICE EXEMPTION - IN PEORIA COUNTY, ILL.


The Surface Transportation Board today granted the City of Peoria authority to discontinue service over an approximiately 1.1-mile portion of the Kellar Branch's south end on behalf of the long-defunct Central Illinois Railroad Company. 

The main point of the filing involves O'Brien Steel Service Co., which has been without rail service since the Central Illinois Railroad Co. ceased operations in 2010.
 
"The City explains that, after discontinuance it intends to transfer approximately 550 feet of right-of-way and track at the south end of the Line to O'Brien Steel, which plans to use the track as a private industrial spur to connect to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad."

I expect that the City will transfer this property to O'Brien Steel shortly, and that rehabilitation will commence soon afterward. Some or all steel plates and I-beams will arrive by rail once facilities are able to receive them. O'Brien will also likely ship scrap steel by rail as well, as it had done in the past. 

The south end of the Kellar Branch, from the NE Adams Street crossing north to Park Avenue, will be removed. 

David P. Jordan

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