Posted on 09/17/2010 3:58:22 PM PDT by KevinDavis
ALTON -- Construction of one leg of a planned high-speed rail line linking St. Louis and Chicago is ready to get under way.
Gov. Pat Quinn is scheduled to join Sen. Dick Durbin and other dignitaries to breaking ground Friday in Alton for the portion of the line between the Mississippi River city and Springfield, then to near Lincoln.
That $98 million effort is a part of the $1.1 billion the Obama Administration awarded in January to improve passenger rail service between Chicago and St. Louis.
The improvements are expected to allow trains to operate at up to 110 mph. That's up from 79 mph currently. At the higher speed, travel time between the cities would be cut by about 90 minutes, to under four hours.
You’ll be a lot lighter with all that heavy privately earned money weighing you down.
The plane ticket would be cheaper, too. I can fly from Columbus to Chicago for $39 each way if I plan it right.
Heck! I can cruise at 110 in my 20 year old Lexus! And be really comfortable, and listen to music blastin’, snack, stop for a good lunch, and enjoy myself! And it would cost less than the train.
Of course I’d probably end up in jail,,,,,,,,,,,,
You know there will be cost overruns and we’ll end up footing the bill for daily operations like we do AmTrak. And has anyone done a cost analysis? How will it impact the airline industry? Will the gov’t seize land to do this? Will we have our taxes increase to subsidize this? If there was a real need for it, the market would have stepped in.
We’re in the middle of a bad recession and these idiots want to create another possible boondoggle???
What a frickin’ waste of money. How about spending the money on better roads and more of them?
How about not spending the money?
110mph is a local train in Europe.
Its so funny. There was an ‘Interurban’ along the old route 66 back in the 30’s and 40’s. It went BROKE!!!. Obama (Keynes) strikes again.
All that money for up to a 30mph increase in the top speed of a regular train?
Somebody is nuts.
Choo choo ping.
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