Senator and Presidential candidate John Kerry of Massachusetts has introduced into the Senate a Bill calling for a multi-billion dollar investment in high speed rail. I'll send you to dKos for this diary and further links.
You have to like the chances of this happening: Obama and Chicago, public works and depressions, energy and climate change. Too many alignments coming together this time.
Update: Ok so here's some Mickey Mousing around that rail has to put up with. Look at the numbers in the below story; $15 million to finish a job and $125 million to extend it to St. Louis. Now we're not talking true high speed but getting there. The report below is talking about getting trains up to 110 mph. True HSR is over 110mpg usually in the 150-230mph ranges. (via Midwest High Speed Rail Association)
A few years later, the federal government targeted certain rail corridors for potential upgrade to high-speed service. Enough money, about $100 million, was found for the St. Louis-to-Chicago route. By 2004, track was improved to handle trains at speeds of 110 mph. At the same time, four safety gates, instead of the usual two, were installed at 69 public road crossings. Private crossings received two gates.
But that’s where progress stalled.
Because of the speeds involved, engineers could not depend on the old-style trackside light signals to alert them that tracks were clear ahead and still give them enough time to stop in emergencies. High-tech equipment was sought so signals inside the trains would let engineers know well in advance if the track was busy ahead.
The system also would allow the locomotive to stop automatically if the engineer failed to respond to a problem. The device would work as a fail-safe to prevent a real-life replay of the scene from the movie “Silver Streak” when an Amtrak train crashed into Union Station in downtown Chicago.
After several years and at least $12 million, designers could not get the new gizmo to work. As a result, Weber said the partners in the project recently decided to use an older system “off the shelf” that will do the job.
“The technology has been around since World War II,” Harnish said. “All we have to do is take the technology that’s been proven and put it to work between Joliet and Springfield.”
Money is a holdup now. About $10 million to $15 million more is needed to equip the trains with the devices. The state has applied for grants to get the job done. Approval could come any day. Franke said Amtrak also hopes for money to be included in the Illinois capital budget at the center of an ongoing stalemate between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and fellow Democrats in the Illinois House. Political support is there: Illinois currently is second only to California is providing state support for passenger rail service.
Weber said switching the Springfield-to-St. Louis segment to high-speed rail traffic could cost as much as $125 million more. If that was done, two hours could be cut from what is now a 5½-hour trip from Chicago to St. Louis. But Weber doesn’t see that money becoming available any time soon.
