UP intermodal on St. Louis - Joliet line - Trains Magazine

BLS53

Is there a reason why that line has been overlooked by the UP for so long? Seems up to now, they have favored some roundabout routings over this one. Or is there just not that much business between Chicago-St. Louis anymore? GM&O used to run some hot freights on the line back in the day.

One reason is that the line does not have easy access to a major UP yard on the Chicago end (Proviso or Dolton). In the ICG days some freights went north from Markham to the Air Line to gain access to former GM&O rails. 

I ran some blocking models for the ICG just after the merger. At that time GM&O didn't know what a hot freight was. Everything was switched at each major intermediate point. ICG did attempt to run the Slingshot intermodal trains, but they never generated much business.