thoughtleaders
BY MARK B. SOLOMON, SENIOR EDITOR
Creating a better
rail hub
INTERVIEW WITH
WILLIAM C. THOMPSON
As Chicago goes, so goes
the country’s railroad
network. It’s Bill
Thompson’s job to see
that the region’s
historically clogged rail
system doesn’t go to hell
in a hand basket.
BY THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, CHICAGO, THE NATION’S BUSIEST RAIL
hub which today accounts for one-fourth of the United States’ rail traffic, had
become intolerably sclerotic. Rail lines built in the mid- to late 1800s were inadequate to meet modern-day demands, let alone any future growth. A train that took
48 hours to travel 2,200 miles from Los Angeles to Chicago was, by 2003, taking
almost that long just to get through Chicago.
On June 16, 2003, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced the creation of an
extraordinary public-private sector task force to tackle the problem. The “Chicago
Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program,” better known as
CREATE, marked the first time so many competing railroads—the six big ones serving Chicago—would collaborate to improve the efficiency of an urban rail network.
The following year, William C. Thompson, a 35-year rail veteran— 23 of those
with Union Pacific Corp. —was named CREATE’s program manager. Thompson
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