Daily Willie Green Choo-Choo thread.
Posted on 07/20/2010 1:11:40 PM PDT by Willie Green
Track improvements will start this September to allow trains to travel at much faster speeds between Chicago and St. Louis.
An agreement between the Illinois Department of Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad will allow track upgrades to be made on a 90-mile segment of UP track to prepare it for high-speed rail.
The $98 million project is a part of the $1.1 billion awarded in January by the Obama Administration to improve passenger rail service between Chicago and St. Louis. It will allow trains to operate at speeds of up to 110 mph, cutting the travel time between the cities by about 90 minutes, to under four hours. That’s up from 79 mph currently.
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said the project, which will be complete by December, will create jobs and boost commerce in towns along the corridor.
“If there was ever a moment in our history that we need to create good paying jobs and spur economic development, it’s this moment,” Durbin said.
Construction will begin on a segment that extends from just north of Alton to south of Springfield, then resumes just north of Springfield to south of Lincoln. The Amtrak line currently runs through downtown Springfield, and a study is being conducted to determine whether to keep that route or choose one outside the city.
Other improvements to the route, to be paid for by stimulus funds, include new “train sets,” or locomotives and passenger cars, improved signals, and rebuilding of track.
I read in an article that each high speed train displaces four freight trains. Where will the freight going and coming form the North East be rerouted to?
Who rides between those two crapholes anyway?
Indeed, what’s the rider-ship on these lines? Do they operate profitably? Or is this just more wasted tax dollars like AmTrak??
Daily Willie Green Choo-Choo thread.
Now. Seriously, do you have to ask?
Another problem with this whole concept is that high speed lines need to be segregated from all roads, people, etc. I can just imagine the urbanites waiting on overpasses to drop stuff onto high speed trains to see what happens.
When there actually was a market for train travel between Chicago and St. Louis, three separate private railroads (Wabash, Illinois Central and Gulf, Mobile and Ohio) ran trains on that route faster than Amtrak does today.
“Who rides between those two crapholes anyway?”
Willie Green and his welfare friends!
If passenger rail was needed between those two cities, some private railroad would already be doing it.
Betcha this 1.1 turns into a 12.8...I want buy a ticket but will run up there and watch it roll down the traks.........like sure, right, OK...
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