- [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)