[T. P. Pole]

These is a Amtrak route that runs (from and to city centers) between Milwaukee and Chicago. I-94 also runs directly in between those two cities. The train is probably somewhat faster, but it costs $50 roundtrip while my cost of gas is about $10. $50 + massive ferderal subsidy and Amtrak is still losing money each time I ride it. Every day thousands of people make the trip to Chicago on I94 while hundreds take the train.

I've thought much about this. Almost everytime you fly from Milwaukee you fly to Chicago or Minneapolis or Detroit. How about setting up a system of short haul and long haul airports. Say, Chicago for long haul and Milwaukee for short routes. Set up a high speed train between the two. You could probably get the round trip to about 30-40 minutes. This could help with the problem of airport congestion as well.

Do it right, and many folks would book a "flight" on the train. You might even be able to set up the car-loading idea I posted above for these routes.

LAX long haul, Burbank and Long Beach short. San Fran long, San Jose short. This just might work...

[Daus]

How about setting up a system of short haul and long haul airports. Say, Chicago for long haul and Milwaukee for short routes. Set up a high speed train between the two.

Because it's already been accomplished with much less infrastructure cost. Private, for profit airlines do a very effective job of moving people (within the timeframe you mentioned 30-40 mintes) between Milwaukee and O'Hare, plus you havent forced ALL of the long haul traffic onto O'Hare in the process, and I can take Midwest Express direct to DC five minutes from my door stop. :)

Part of the answer to the problems trying to be addresses with trains will come about as some of these large airlines begin to break apart and decentralize their hub based systems. The best, most efficient way to get from my house to Orlando is on a direct flight, on a well run airline (maybe someday, there will be more than 3 of those....)