Fired up Bridgeport residents confront Amtrak officials about controversial maintenance facility plan

As Amtrak seeks to move its Chicago maintenance from the South Loop to Bridgeport, outraged neighbors of the proposed new site near Rate Field vented their frustration at a community meeting with railroad officials on Thursday.

The overwhelming majority of people who spoke at Thursday night's meeting at the Mid-American Carpenters Regional Council Training Facility on the Lower West Side were opposed to Amtrak's plan for a new 24/7 maintenance facility along existing railroad tracks in Bridgeport.

"There's pollution, there's environmental factors, health factors, and I have three young children, and I don't want them to grow up with that in their life. I would be afraid of what would happen to them, along with myself and my family. We are lifelong Bridgeport residents, and this just doesn't belong in anyone's backyard," said Bridgeport resident Alicia Ferro.

Those who spoke out said the future of their neighborhood is at stake. Dozens wore shirts making their opposition to Amtrak's project clear

"Literal homes are right next to the train tracks, and there are so many families that live there that, if they do accomplish this, they will be displacing families, because we would have to move," Ferro said.

The plan calls for a 138,000-square-foot building along a corridor that runs about two miles, from just north of Cermak Road south to 38th Street, passing Rate Field and several homes. Tracks already run through the area, but the building would be new, and it would operate 24/7.

Amtrak has described the facility as four stories tall and five tracks wide on a 47-acre site just west of Rate Field, between two White Sox parking lots, according to prior CBS News Chicago reporting. It would replace the railroad's existing maintenance facility near 14th and Canal streets in the South Loop.

Amtrak officials said, while they looked at rebuilding the existing maintenance yard in the South Loop, or moving elsewhere, they selected the proposed Bridgeport site because of its proximity to Union Station, because it was the right size and shape, and because there was a willing seller in Union Pacific

The currently inactive Union Pacific railyard in Bridgeport was selected for Amtrak's planned relocation in 2023. 

"Our yard at 14th Street is old. Every year it costs us more and more to keep running, and it needs repairs more often," said Amtrak head of commercial development Steven Segerlin.

Project leaders from several industries gave a brief presentation and took questions, while environmental consultants shared results from a study, which found Amtrak's plan would have only moderate impacts on noise levels, and that construction and emissions from the site would fall within the limits of the Clean Air Act.

"Major repairs that require the train to be out of service for weeks or longer will be conducted at Brighton Park or at Beach Grove in Indiana," Segerlin said.

Amtrak wants to build a new modern facility four stories tall and five tracks wide just west of Rate Field. 

Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), whose ward includes the proposed site for the new Amtrak maintenance facility, said the chosen site is too close to existing homes.

"Where it is now is totally industrial. Within 500 yards of that yard where they sit now, 26 people live. Within 500 feet of this yard where they want to move to, 6,741 [people live]," she said.

That South Loop land is the reason the two projects can't be separated. White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia is a shareholder in Canal Edge, the company under contract to buy the South Loop site Amtrak would vacate. He is planning a mixed-use development at the site, which would include a new White Sox ballpark along the Chicago River.

The team's lease at Rate Field, which is owned by the taxpayer-funded Illinois Sports Facility Authority, expires after the end of the 2029 season.

The overlap has residents near the proposed rail facility worried they could absorb a round-the-clock industrial operation and lose the ballclub in the same deal.

Deb Ahrens, a Bridgeport resident and former Amtrak employee, was among those who voiced their opposition to the maintenance facility project on Wednesday at an Illinois Sports Facility Authority board meeting. She said she used to work at the existing site in the South Loop, and claimed it is full of rash and trash.

"This is what will come to our community: rats, trash; and they talk about how they will upgrade security? Please. Do you know how many times I got waved through because a guy was reading a book? And at night?" she said. "You see the trains with graffiti on them. It didn't get there by themselves and the rats didn't paint it."

Lee said Amtrak plans on moving forward with the Bridgeport maintenance facility under federal authority than can bypass local zoning, building, and environmental regulations.

"I would love if Amtrak would pump the brakes for a minute, actually have a conversation with us, not just tell us what they plan to do," she said.

Labor and transportation unions have thrown their support behind the project. Amtrak has created a dedicated website for the project, which it said will be updated as their plan moves forward.