Also from A History of the St. Louis Division and Carbondale IL, it turns out that downtown business resistance is not the reason there is not an overpass over the railroad tracks at the town square.
Placing the new depot further south on Illinois pulled passenger trains stopping in Carbondale further down the tracks, eliminating the problem of stopped passenger trains blocking Walnut and Main.
IN addition, freight traffic had declined significantly in Carbondale by the early 80s, with many branch tracks getting pulled up. However the city still had plans to put in a overpass on the square. The planning for this got pushed even moreso, when the Illinois Central announced plans to run six coal trains daily through the city. The city drew up plans for the overpass, arranged for contractors and even had construction equipment on site ready to go, when word came through that the IC's plans for the additional coal trains had fallen through and the city pulled the plug on the plan.
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