Speculation over HSR to Chicago (Rockford, Peoria: first time home buyer, buyers, living in)

[Smedskjaer]

Speculate, how will Chicago change if the city were connected by a two hour train ride to Peoria or four hours to St. Louis?

I think people who commute to Chicago from the suburbs will sell their houses and move to Peoria and many first time home buyers will try their luck there too. Peoria will see a population boom and Chicago will have a much larger labor market.

I wonder if Chicago will absorb Peoria, culturally speaking, since in my version, commuters will spend more hours of the day active in Chicago than Peoria. They will be Chicagoans and talk about Peoria as if it were Chicago.

I think it will become the norm for the labor market in Chicago have home addresses in other counties.

[jwaiter]

Originally Posted by Smedskjaer

how will Chicago change if the city were connected by a two hour train ride to Peoria...
I think people who commute to Chicago from the suburbs will sell their houses and move to Peoria and many first time home buyers will try their luck there too. Peoria will see a population boom

I don't know about that. Most people work 8.5-9.5 hours per day at their job, so you're talking adding 4 hours of commute time to that, resulting in a 13 hour day every day. Who wants to do that? Leave at 7am, home at 8pm, bed at 11pm?

[aragx6]

I see this more as a boon for tourism and business travel -- for both Chicago and STL -- than for commuters. And I see it as the beginning of a regional HSR network that will connect the midwest in a new way.

But no, I really can't see Peoria becoming, for all intents and pruposes, a suburb of Chicago. A lot of folks will do the Baltimore to DC commute, but that's still in the hour-range for a commute -- 2 hours each way is way too far to do 10 times per week.

[RichMonk]

One piece people often over look when it comes to HSR. Shipping. Want to get something across the state in a hurry but don't want to pay for next day air? Just select [Insert carrier name]'s Next Day Speed Rail.

Tourism is the big one, I believe. Many in STL want to see Chicago and I'm sure there is a not small number of Chicagoans who want to see the Arch, the fabulous St. Louis Zoo or the Cardinals.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by Smedskjaer

Speculate, how will Chicago change if the city were connected by a two hour train ride to Peoria or four hours to St. Louis?

I think people who commute to Chicago from the suburbs will sell their houses and move to Peoria and many first time home buyers will try their luck there too. Peoria will see a population boom and Chicago will have a much larger labor market.

I wonder if Chicago will absorb Peoria, culturally speaking, since in my version, commuters will spend more hours of the day active in Chicago than Peoria. They will be Chicagoans and talk about Peoria as if it were Chicago.

I think it will become the norm for the labor market in Chicago have home addresses in other counties.

Four hours is too long a commute and cook county itself(where 99% of chicago is in) is one of the biggest counties in the country. As it stands now people who work in Chicago(and downtown esp.) can be from lake county, Dupage county, North west Indiana because of our extensive commuter lines. As it stands now you can travel from Kenoshia WI,Joilet IL, South Bend IN, and Auroa IL with Metra.

The only places I can think of that would make sense to link via commuter rail or HSR would be Kankakee and Rockford in terms of commute into chicago for work(and even then the commute on Metra could be bad i.e. 2 hours plus).

It could cut some burb commutes as the Metra stations in Napervile, Homewood, Joliet, and Glenview also serve as Amtrak stations on certain routes and it will really help business travelers. Homewood is currently on the Chicago to St Louis line. However HSR won't go racing into the city(or at least not for a long time). Chicago itself has a lot of rail traffic from freight, Metra and Amtrak trains and they could be sharing the same track into the city. It would just increase service to these points and Amtrak could provide non stop service from these points into town.

[chet everett]

Sorry, I love railroads but the "high speeds" being proposed are a total JOKE compared to technology in any other part of the developed world.

Currently a lowly diesel-electric Metra locomotive with completely UNSTREAMLINED double deck passenger cars IN THE LEAD makes the 17 mile run from Hinsdale to Union Station in 21 minutes for an average speed of 54 MPH (the conductors tell me they hit peak speeds of just about 70 MPH for a few minutes)...

The straight-line distance from Peoria to Chicago is 130 miles thus current NON-articulated locomotives and rolling stock are CAPABLE of CURRENTLY doing this run in under 2 hours! Straight line distance to STL is about 260 miles -- again roughly a CURRENT TECHNOLOGY run of under 4 hours.

Japanese bullet trains between Osaka and Tokyo have had top speeds of OVER 150 MPH since the 1960s!!!

The latest generation of "Hayabusa" (Japanese "falcon") trains make the trip from Tokyo to Aomori (419 miles) in just a bt over 3 hours --peak sustained speeds are over 190 MPH!!!

The world wide standards say it ain't HSR if it ain't breaking 200 km/h (125 MPH) and most technically advanced rail systems really target MAX speeds OVER 350 km/h (217 MPH) which MIGHT actually get some folks to rethink what is doable in a day, but as gross mismanageent and political corruption seem to go hand in hand with passenger rail in the US I have no hope to ever see such travel over here...

[grapico]

yeah calling this hsr is a bit of a joke, how about fr, fast rail.

so no i dont think it will help, still too slow and you are connecting one major city with a medium size city... it isn't like the DC/NYC in 2:30m or the NYC-Boston 3:30m on the Acela which can peak at 150mph.

[tonythetuna]

Originally Posted by Smedskjaer

I think people who commute to Chicago from the suburbs will sell their houses and move to Peoria

Urm no.

[ToriaT]

I doubt if people will move to those locations. A very tiny percentage might. When I worked there were a few people living in NW Indiana near MI and some that lived in Milwaukee and Kenosha going to the loop. Very few people will put up with such a lengthy commute.

[MannheimMadman]

Originally Posted by tonythetuna

Urm no.

I lol'd too. Having just been to Peoria, I found that statement absolutely ridiculous.