US Oks $196.5M for high-speed Chicago-Detroit rail (train to nowhere in particular)

Yahoo ^ | 10/05/11

[Libloather]

US Oks $196.5M for high-speed Chicago-Detroit rail
AP – 25 mins ago

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved $196.5 million for part of a high-speed Amtrak passenger rail link between Chicago and Detroit, Michigan U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow said Wednesday.

The funds now being obligated cover work from Kalamazoo in western Michigan to Dearborn in suburban Detroit, the Democratic lawmakers said.

The grant to the Michigan Department of Transportation will cover track and signal improvements.

[colorado tanker]

This makes no sense. Maybe back in 1950 when Detroit was the fifth biggest city in the country and Chicago was second. But even back then the major transcontinental trains did not go through Detroit, they passed south on the route of the Twentieth Century Limited or today's Lake Shore Limited.

This will be another boondoggle, like New Mexico's Road Runner.

[The Free Engineer]

I live right near the line in question just west of Ann Arbor. I see the trains every day and I can tell you that except near holidays or break time at U of M the AMTRAK trains are empty.

Now they will probably put up fences along the tracks, ugly my backyard view up, and block my access to my fishing spot on the Huron river so empty trains can get to Chicago 30 minutes faster.

m

[dfwgator]

And the days of Bears fans flooding Detroit when they play the Lions at Ford Field are over.

[madison10]

Aack, we don’t need it. Who wants to go to Chicago anyway? Worse yet, who wants to go to Detroit?

[chainsaw]

And with all the graft and corruption in Chicongo and Detroit it will cost the taxpayers 5 times the 196 Mill, and that is only for the “part” that will never be used.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Subsidized public transportation vs. private auto’s and airlines.

ACORNonomics in action.

[iowamark]

[Qout]

I don’t know who’d want to ride it, but 1,380 people do every day.

[dfwgator]

STRELNIKOV!

[cashless]

A high speed rail system linking the most corrupt city in America with the biggest welfare disaster of a city in America—what could go wrong?

Follow the money. All contracts will be limited to union contracts and the cost overruns will be astronomical and the track will be laid just as good as the ceiling in the Boston tunnel.

[cripplecreek]

There won't be anything high speed about it. The route has little towns like Grass Lake Michigan every few miles and there's no way they'll allow speeds in triple digits through there.

[equaviator]

The S-bahn (8) between Wiesbaden and Hanau, Germany could be the model. Unemployed junkies, druggies, student-type “revolutionaries”, their bikes and their dogs? What a great pamphlet it would make, eh? Sooo, run that by me again- Detroit to Chicago and back because...?

[equaviator]

“so empty trains can get to Chicago 30 minutes faster.”

For appearances sake only...as IF! Just like Obama.

[Revel]

Let the Chicago political crooks pay for it.

Better yet put them all on for the first ride and secretly build the end of the line straight to the closet Illinois Prison.

[Texas resident]

Because during elections, the dimrats need to move the Chicago rats to Detroit to vote and the Detroit rats to Chicago to vote. Then repeat the process. If it is a high speed train, they can get multiple loads transferred in a day so that baraq can get a huge number of votes from those two cities all in one day.

Now you see?

[grellis]

MICHIGAN PING LIST

Please freepmail me if you wish to be added or dropped from the mitten ping.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Mousellini and Hitler were similarly directed toward trains.

[equaviator]

I have seen the lite!

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

That’s what I keep telling my (union member) in-laws. For Hi-speed, they will need to construct a separate (elevated?) line because of all the podunk stations like your Grass Lake and my Albion.

I can drive from Midway to downtown Dee-troit (GO TIGERS!!!!) in about 4-5 hours. The “hi-speed” rail project says that Union Station (CHI) to Detroit Amtrak will be 4 hours.

I know for a fact that the train WILL be delayed; freight has priority over passenger traffic in the Chicago market (CHI - Gary).

Passenger trains have historically been delayed (either direction) for up to 4 hours to allow for freight.

[absolootezer0]

Aack, we don’t need it. Who wants to go to Chicago anyway?

my brother in law is stationed in Great Lakes, IL just outside of chicago. My mom takes the train from k-zoo to Chicago about once a month to visit my sister. that's about the only reason i can think of for wanting to go there.