illinois high speed rail?

Has anyone heard about the midwest/illinois high speed rail system, "not currently operating a future project", and was wondering if anyone has heard about it and if someone can give me information about it?
thank you!

RAILROADTRAINING wrote:Has anyone heard about the midwest/illinois high speed rail system, "not currently operating a future project", and was wondering if anyone has heard about it and if someone can give me information about it?
thank you!

Um, gobs. Start with Wikipedia's entry for "Midwest High Speed Rail", then Google that and "MWHSR". There are a couple of advocacy organizations, an actual Interstate Compact organization (led by Wisconsin), and a page on the FRA website. Basically the plans are to connect Chicago to Milwaukee, Madison, the Twin Cities, St. Louis, Toledo, Cleveland, and Detroit by frequent 110mph or faster passenger rail, and to a bunch of other cities by frequent 79 mph rail, and to eliminate the current bottlenecks in Chicago which force trains to slow down very slow within the metro area. It's also loosely connected to CREATE, which is designed to eliminate the bottlenecks on the freight system. It's being implemented piecemeal, with Illinois and Wisconsin increases in state-sponsored Amtrak services being among the first steps. And it just got a bunch of ARRA money.