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http://www.beloitdailynews.com/article/201.../170509928'

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Great Lakes Basin Transportation (GLBT) officials have submitted the formal application for its Indiana-to-Wisconsin rail line plan.

The deadline for the submission was Monday. The application for the 278-mile proposed freight line, which goes through Rock County in Wisconsin and Winnebago County in Illinois, was given to federal Surface Transportation Board (STB), after an extension was granted in December to work on the environmental review of GLBTs proposal.

“This is a historic day for GLBT to file its formal application to construct the Great Lakes Basin Railroad,” said founder and chairman Frank Patton. “Our application explains the need for this vital project to the STB and the public. The GLBR is the largest single freight railroad project proposed for the Chicago region in over a century. We look forward to working with the STB and other interested parties to move this project forward.”

The route remains unchanged in the official application filing. The original plan had the line going through Boone County, but that plan was changed and the route now is planned to run west of Rockford and west of Beloit. The rail line is proposed to run from La Porte, Indiana to Milton, Wisconsin. If built, trains would run south from Milton, between Beloit and Janesville, before cutting into the Town of Beloit and heading into Illinois and onto Indiana, according to GLBT maps.

The plan is viewed by project officials as a way to streamline freight traffic around the Midwest, avoiding heavy congestion in Chicago, while opposition groups claim the plan would severely harm property values and impact the quality of life for rural residents in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The railway is the first part of a plan intended to improve transit times around the Chicago area, including a new privately funded expressway and a new airport serving the south suburbs, according to a GLBT news release. The expressway would start in Grundy County, Illinois and end in Michigan City, Indiana. The rail and toll road would make up a 2,000-foot-wide corridor, possibly expanding on right of way routes along the corridor. The toll road would stretch 125 miles, with plans set to go before the Indiana and Illinois transit boards ahead of public hearings on the issue.