As I rode on Amtrak train that runs between Chicago and Detroit recently, I thought about how much of the inner portion of the Midwest many people don’t usually get to see.
Aside from a distribution facility, living or having a business along the tracks is usually a negative proposition. Located along the rail lines are junkyards, boarded-up factories and jumbles of steel and stone. Homes along the tracks are usually large but dilapidated, wanted by only a few.
That combination seems to be a good metaphor for the heart of the Midwest today. While our commercial roads may show stores, hospitals and the occasional downtown office cluster, look to our rarely seen rail-served interior for our rusting, aging soul.
This age, this rust is why the Midwest is scorned, our belt of job-producing steel and automotive industries once unrivaled in the world has worn out, with vast complexes empty and unused. We are not high-tech and shiny, our sidewalks sometimes roll up at 6 p.m. and our weather can be cold and unwelcoming.
The near abandonment of passenger rail has aided the Midwest decline, and ignorance of the potential job and community growth to adding lines, especially true high-speed lines, will continue to hold the region down.
In the recent spate of investors predicting our path for 2012, they say the best areas to invest are the core markets. I remember one market researcher specifically describe the best possible investment spots as “the West and East coasts, and anywhere really in the South.” I don’t know if he meant it this way, but his message was clear – anywhere but the Midwest.
The defense most Midwestern commercial real estate professionals give is while there aren’t big swings of profit, there’s also no quick dumps to failure, either. However, another secret is that deep within this rust belt, a few miles from those rail lines in all directions, are the people who literally built this country, rivet by rivet, from skyscrapers to Studebakers, from planes to plastic wrap. They are still hungry to work.
High-speed rail has been discussed to get these Midwest people, many with high-level engineering backgrounds, to available jobs throughout the region, but the movement is slow. Even with the roughly $200 million investment for high-speed lines planned to service the Wolverine, Amtrak’s Chicago to Detroit line, announced this past month, a proposed 110-mph train will still make many stops, saving riders only about half an hour in the five-to-six hour ride.
Light passenger rail is also needed in ALL Midwestern cities. On Friday I visited Columbus, a beautiful city that’s really cleaning itself up with new stadiums, office buildings and multifamily towers – but the city lacks a light rail line to link it with the popular Ohio State campus, the developing Grandview Yard business area or the popular Short North neighborhood. Thus, the city is still far from a 24-7 operation.
It’s clear today that the right speeds and the right stations for light and high-speed rail can boost any region, and provide hope to Midwesterners looking for jobs. Whether politicians, city planners and even taxpayers will step up to see the potential is still, unfortunately, in question.
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