StLouSteve wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:23 am
This month's Trains Magazine has a technical article on why the high speed rail projects in MI and IL have failed to reach their targets. Sounds like speed in IL will eventually get bumped to 89 from the current 79 and that will be it instead of the once hailed 120 mph.
Unmentioned is UP's new on line center and whether IL got sold a bill of goods to rebuild UP's line at gov't expense.
I do not believe Illinois DOT ever promised 120 mph speeds, what they did promise was 110 mph speeds. With 110 mph max speeds, they promised up to an hour savings in elapse time between Chicago and St. Louis. With the now promise (since January 2019) 90 mph max speeds, the time savings has shrunk to 15 minutes. At a cost of $2 Billion, that calculates out to be an expenditure of 133,333,333.33 per minute. At $1 Billion, an expenditure of 66,666,666.66 per minute. Some argue what was the total spent, so I included both figures. Whichever, the speed increase is still just a promise.
Even when it was a promised one hour savings, the cost per minute saved seemed more reasonable, at either 33,333,333.33 or 16,666,666.67 per minute; a difference of $100 million or $50 million less per minute.