High-speed rail closer to reality

Engineer Charles Evans, Jr. works the train controls as Amtrak's Lincoln Service line speeds along at 72 m.p.h. between St. Louis and Chicago. A 68-page guideline released Wednesday, June 17, 2009, by the Obama administration gives an edge in the race for federal stimulus cash, to states like California and eight states in the Midwest that have cooperated closely to promote a network with Chicago as its hub.
The Associated Press

Getting to Chicago from Champaign in less than an hour might seem like a dream. But a plan to begin high-speed rail service throughout Illinois could make that dream a reality.

"We put a man on the moon ... and now we are seeing high-speed rail become a reality," Illinois State Senator Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) said at a news release at the Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign Tuesday morning.

Sandoval was one of several state and city officials present at the Illinois Terminal to support a proposal by the Midwest High Speed Rail Association to run a high-speed rail line through Champaign by 2016.

According to a news release, the MHSRA proposal calls for a $12 billion, 220-mile-per-hour high-speed rail line that would cut the trip between Chicago and St. Louis to just over two hours. The rail line would also serve Kankakee, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur and Springfield.

In a special report, the MHSRA concluded that the best route for achieving 220 miles-per-hour speeds with existing rights-of-way was to link St. Louis and Chicago via Decatur, Champaign-Urbana and Springfield. The route from Chicago to Champaign will take 43 minutes, and Champaign to St. Louis 70 minutes.

The 391 Saluki pulls into the Illinois Terminal in Champaign on October 1, 2008.
Wesley Fane The Daily Illini

Brandon Bowersox, an Urbana City councilman speaking of behalf of the city at the press conference, expressed excitement over having the high-speed trains running from Chicago to Champaign.

"It will transform the University, allowing greater visiting scholar and student access, as well as transforming the Champaign-Urbana business environment and the arts and culture environment," Bowersox said.

Rick Harnish, executive director of the MHSRA, said the association has not conducted a benefits analysis study at this time.

"We currently can't afford to do a benefits analysis but are planning on it once we have the money," Harnish said.

The special report stated potential benefits include an increase in economic productivity, reduction in gasoline and jet fuel consumption, reduced highway congestion and an increase in tourism.

Harnish said safety is a also benefit of high-speed rail. He said itis the safest mode of transportation, compared to flying and driving.

Tom Bruno, a member of the Champaign City Council who has ridden high-speed rail lines in Japan, said it is not only safe, but a smooth and comfortable ride as well.

"It's the best way to go," Bruno said.

The rail line will convenience students across the entire state as well, said Jenna Brayton, a University senior in political science and marketing. Heralding from a Chicago suburb, she said that the rail line will provide a quick route home and greater accessibility to job opportunities and internships in Chicago that University students would not otherwise have been able to manage.

"We are (University students) missing a lot of opportunities that University of Chicago students are getting because of accessibility," Brayton said. "We are competing with Chicago area university business students and this will make it more feasible."

Dan Johnson Weinberger, President of Progressive Public Affairs, the group that organized Tuesday morning's press conference, said this is the first time that any engineering firm has been hired to see if high-speed rail is feasible in Illinois.

"People are doing jumping jacks because there is a firm saying that a 220 mph Chicago to St. Louis rail line is feasible if Congress allocates the money," Weinberger said. "Over the next three, four, five, six years we want it to happen."

Sandoval said that in early April, President Obama shared his vision of high-speed rail by working to get $8 billion in high-speed rail funds in the stimulus package. He also said the Governor Quinn has allocated $400 million in state funds.

"This is the largest investment a state has made in the country towards high-speed rail," Sandoval said.