Midwestern High Speed Rail Network - Chicago thoughts? (Rockford, Washington: live in, costs)

[ptug101]

I heard that alot of cities are afraid of loosing revenue to chicago.
if your looking for something to do and you live in indianopolis, minneapolis, or st louis.
and you can get to chicago in 1-2 hrs, your probably going to chicago. I can see alot of their downtowns loosing revenue.

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by ptug101

I heard that alot of cities are afraid of loosing revenue to chicago.
if your looking for something to do and you live in indianopolis, minneapolis, or st louis.
and you can get to chicago in 1-2 hrs, your probably going to chicago. I can see alot of their downtowns loosing revenue.

High Speed rail isn't free. NYC to Boston on Acela is over $100 one way. I don't think the average family of couple is going to casually drop $800-1000 to day trip to Chicago even if they can get there in an hour or two.

[rparz]

I'd like for it to become more practical, for sure. I absolutely abhor flying. Between homeland security, waiting for flights, cramped quarters, crappy food. And, like clockwork I almost always get sick.
I'd rather drive.

Or, hop on a train at night, sit on a car, eat a decent meal, unwind with some tv/wi-fi, pass out and wake up, eat breakfast and head to my destination....Sounds like a winner.

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by rparz

I'd like for it to become more practical, for sure. I absolutely abhor flying. Between homeland security, waiting for flights, cramped quarters, crappy food. And, like clockwork I almost always get sick.
I'd rather drive.

Or, hop on a train at night, sit on a car, eat a decent meal, unwind with some tv/wi-fi, pass out and wake up, eat breakfast and head to my destination....Sounds like a winner.

I have a hard time with the passing out part. Taking an overnight train to Buffalo always means arriving without any sleep. I know they have sleeper cars but those cost over $300, not worth the price as far as I'm concerned.

[DarkWolf]

Map Key

High Speed Rail - 125-220mph lines , Train and Grade Separated - Electric
Regional Rail - 80-125mph lines , Shares with Freight and commuter rail trains or run separated next to High Speed Rail - Diesel or Electric
Commuter Rail - 50-100mph lines , shares with Freight and commuter , along with Light Rail and other Transit corridors - Diesel or Electric

[Alicia Bradley]

Woo.. this is exciting. My mother and grandmother used to take the train from the Quad Cities in IA to Chicago for the day back in the '50s. They'd 'lunch' and shop at Marshall Field's (and probably other places) and then return home in the early evening. It always sounded so cool to me...

[chet everett]

I what multiple of a week's salary a cost would have cost mom & grandmother back then? Somehow I think that is the key to understanding why high speed rail is not practical in the midwest these days. Not making a value judgement about the relative environment merits of one mode of transportation over another, or even suggesting that years of federally administered motor fuel taxes supporting highway construction and maintenance was the right or wrong way to build a transportation infrastructure, just suggesting that things have changed too much to ever "go back to the golden age of rail"...

Personal income in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What did cars cost in the 1950's and how many cars were registered then? - Yahoo! Answers

[DarkWolf]

Back car ownership is dropping and the Skies are getting congested , you can't really build anymore large airports in the US anymore....the Country is also exploding in Population....while things are quiet in the Midwest i have a feeling that will change...they launched a few studies saying HSR is feasible in the Midwest and would operate on a 2 Billion $$ profit.... From what i'm told most of IL & MN lines except the HSR lines will be built by 2030..... The Midwest unlike the Northeast didn't rip up critical Regional lines , so restoring the Regional Network will be cheap and easy , half the cost of the HSR system. By 2030 Gas prices won't be 2-3$ , probably as high as 10$ , as demand from Africa , China and India increases...

[Plzeň]

"Dwyer"? I'm going to assume they mean Dyer.

At any rate, those maps look great, but any of us could draw up potential high speed rail routes. Talk to me when they're actually being constructed (or at least funded and planned) and then I'll get excited.

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by Plzeň

"Dwyer"? I'm going to assume they mean Dyer.

At any rate, those maps look great, but any of us could draw up potential high speed rail routes. Talk to me when they're actually being constructed (or at least funded and planned) and then I'll get excited.

From what i'm told , there currently upgrading the St. Louis line to 110mph , although this line would not be the same line that carries the 220mph service... There also extending Amtrak to the Quad Cities & Dubuque , then extending service West to De Kalb , Laselle , and Peoria in the form of Regional Rail or Commuter rail which would be Metra. Theres also prep work and a whole host projects underway in Chicagoland to make building HSR down the road easier. There will be a New Union Station that will have to be built to accomendate the HST's. Similar to the New Philly and Baltimore stations needed for the New NEC...