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I can’t wait – think of how much the Midwest could benefit from a true high-speed train; imagine the jobs an out-of-work Midwesterner could chase if a train network existed that, like the East Coast system; would allow a rider to zip over to the next big city in an hour or two.
I want it to happen now. I have eschewed air and car travel for train travel, getting back to my roots as the son and grandson of Grand Trunk Railroad employees. Aside from the alleged green benefits (we can argue for days which is worse for the environment), it’s just a more comfortable way to travel. Flying by air takes more than an hour just to go through all the various holding areas, security checkpoints, gate hikes, etc. For trips short or hours long, catching a train is about as time consuming, but easier, cheaper and less stressful.
Amtrak, with the assistance from a $2 billion federal aid package, is trying to implement quicker and more lines – but it will be a slow, gradual process. Current laws must be bent, right-of-way purchased, rails added or fixed, stations updated. High-speed will come at a slow pace.
I talked this week with Ray Lang, president of the Amtrak-owned Chicago Union Station Co. and the railroad’s chief of state government relations. He says higher-speed rail is in the works for the Midwest lines, but confirmed that the desire is for “gradual implementation.” Plus, it could be decades before there would be an express line that could avoid stops along the way.
But we can dream, can’t we? Imagine a two-hour ride from Detroit to Chicago, or Chicago to St. Louis. An hour ride from Cleveland to Detroit. Some Chicago Metra lines are that long now with stops along the way, yet the jobs are worth the time – and it could open up the Midwest to better employment options. You could work in downtown Chicago and live in the country, with just an relaxing hour and a half commute each way. Leave at 7 a.m., drink coffee, read the paper, maybe even get some early work done, and be at work before 9 a.m.
In the 1950s-1970s, we started to throw away our grand train stations, not realizing that in this century we’d wistfully try to remember the last time we had time to sit and watch the world go by. Those stations are now being rebuilt, and train travel is getting its due again.
I can’t wait.
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