The Chicago Hub Network is a collection of proposed fast conventional and

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

lines in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

ern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

including of track. Since the 1990s, there have been multiple proposals to build a network from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

to destinations such as

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

, St. Louis,

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

, and

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

. In addition, the rail lines from the Chicago hub would connect through to cities in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. Eastern routes from Chicago would also blend into the

Ohio Hub The Ohio Hub was a high-speed railway project proposed in the 2000s decade by the Ohio Department of Transportation aimed at revitalizing passenger rail service in the Ohio region. The plan was awarded funding under the American Recovery and Rei ...

network. In addition to providing better connections between Midwestern cities, the projects are intended to reduce or eliminate the operating

subsidies A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

that American passenger train routes currently require. If implemented, the plans would have some of the nation's fastest trains in Chicago, as it had in the 1930s and 1940s when the ''

Twin Zephyr The ''Twin Zephyrs'', also known as the ''Twin Cities Zephyrs'', were a pair of streamlined passenger trains on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), running between Chicago and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Mi ...

s'', ''

Twin Cities 400 The ''400''Chicago & North Western Railway Route of the "400" The Streamliners and the Challengers ime Table Rand McNally, January 15, 1939. Chicago, IL (later named the ''Twin Cities 400''Chicago & North Western Railway Through Passenger Schedul ...

'', and ''

Hiawatha Hiawatha ( , also : ), also known as Ayenwathaaa or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some account ...

'' were based in the city. Chicago is

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

's largest rail hub, and remains unsurpassed in the total number of passenger and freight trains that converge on any city on the continent. Chicago is a major hub for

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

, with 15 different lines terminating at the city's Union Station. Most existing passenger trains in the region operate at speeds of about , although a few travel faster. The various plans have suggested speeds ranging from for the core routes, as well as improved speeds for secondary routes. The Chicago–St. Louis rail line is being upgraded so passenger trains will be able to reach top speeds of when traveling between Joliet and

Carlinville Carlinville is a city and the county seat of Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. It is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and the former home of Prairie Farms Dairy. As of the 2 ...

Early studies and ISTEA corridors

Renewed interest in high-speed rail occurred by the year 1990 when the Minnesota–Wisconsin–Illinois Tri-State Rail Study was underway. A Chicago–Milwaukee–Madison–La Crosse–Rochester–Twin Cities "southern corridor" (a variation of the former ''Hiawatha'' routing) and a Chicago–Milwaukee–Green Bay–Wausau–Eau Claire–Twin Cities "northern corridor" were described in a preliminary report in December of that year. A final report was released in May 1991 and recommended

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

-class service since it provided the greatest benefit to riders and others in the corridor, though a slower (and less expensive) "Amtrak upgrade" option was also deemed reasonable for capital-constrained investments. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) was passed on December 18, 1991, and requested designation of up to five corridors. A core of what would become the Chicago Hub Network was the first of these five to be announced by

Secretary of Transportation A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...

Andrew Card Andrew Hill Card Jr. (born May 10, 1947) is an American politician and academic administrator who was White House Chief of Staff under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006, as well as head of Bush's White House Iraq Group. Card served as ...

on October 15, 1992, who designated Chicago-based routes to Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Detroit.

Midwest Regional Rail Initiative

In 2004, the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative plan was released, focusing on upgrading existing Amtrak routes. The plan had been in development since 1996, led by the

Wisconsin Department of Transportation The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Wisconsin responsible for planning, building and maintaining the state's highways. It is also responsible for planning transportation in the state ...

. Trains would travel at about on the primary routes, but on secondary lines. Existing trains run at speeds of about . Raising the speed would significantly reduce trip times. A trip between

and Chicago would be reduced from about 90 minutes to just over an hour. The trip from the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

to Chicago would drop from 8 hours to 5½ hours. Travelers between Chicago and

would see the biggest gains, cutting travel time in half to just 4 hours. If implemented, planners would expect 13.6 million annual riders by the year 2025. The frequency of train trips would also be increased: areas that currently only see one train in each direction every day would be upgraded to four or six trips each way. The total investment required for the system, paying for infrastructure as well as

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...

, was estimated at $7.7 billion in 2002 dollars. $1.1 billion of that would go toward purchasing 63 new train sets. Plans at the time called for phased construction taking about a decade. This plan is expected to use diesel-powered trains, which is one reason for the relatively low top speed in comparison to high-speed lines in Europe and elsewhere. The practical limit for diesel-powered train service is about . Higher speeds require electrification, which can double the cost of building a rail line, though trains on such lines benefit from higher efficiency leading to lower fuel costs, and the ability to accelerate and decelerate more rapidly which boosts rail line capacity.

2009 Midwest High Speed Rail Association proposal

For 2009, the Midwest High Speed Rail Association (MHSRA) and other organizations requested new studies of possible rail routes in the Midwest, this time with service as the goal. These routes were identified:Midwest High Speed Rail Association: 220-mph High Speed Lines
*Chicago–Milwaukee–Madison–Rochester–Minneapolis/St. Paul-St. Cloud-Fargo-Bismarck *Chicago–Champaign–Springfield–St. Louis *Chicago–Gary–Lafayette–Indianapolis–Cincinnati **Cincinnati–Dayton–Columbus–Cleveland *Chicago–Gary–Fort Wayne–Toledo–Detroit *Chicago–Gary–Fort Wayne–Toledo–Cleveland-Erie-Buffalo **Cleveland–Pittsburgh The MHSRA funded a study of the link from Chicago to St. Louis,Chicago to St. Louis 220 mph High Speed Rail Alternative Corridor Study
while the Southeast Minnesota Rail Alliance funded a study of the route to Minneapolis/St. Paul—the third in a series previously funded by the Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Departments of Transportation.Tri-State II Rail Study
/ref>Tri-State III Rail Study

2009 SNCF proposal

In late 2009, the French national rail company

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

released studies of several rail corridors in the United States in California, Florida, Texas, and the Midwest.SNCF: Midwest
/ref> France has a population distribution similar to that in the Midwest, so their experiences with

trains and other high-speed systems could conceivably be duplicated in the U.S. The following routes were identified for a first phase of implementation: *Chicago–Milwaukee–Madison–Eau Claire–Minneapolis/St. Paul *Chicago–Bloomington/Normal–Springfield–St. Louis *Chicago–Gary–Lafayette–Indianapolis–Cincinnati *Chicago–Gary–Fort Wayne–Toledo–Detroit *Chicago–Gary–Fort Wayne–Toledo–Cleveland These routes were designed to allow them to overlay the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative plan. Like the MHSRA plan, the SNCF core routes would operate at up to . The total cost was projected at $68.5 billion in 2009 dollars, with 54% of that projected to need public financing if a public-private partnership was pursued. The public funds could be recovered from revenues in about 15 years.

Upgrades underway

Some construction has begun in Illinois and Michigan, primarily as testbeds for the upgraded signaling and control systems required for higher-speed rail. In Michigan, this work has already resulted in speeds up to for Amtrak's ''

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a musc ...

'' and '' Blue Water'' services.
-> Similar work on the Chicago–Saint Louis line in Illinois was met with considerable technical difficulties in 2005, though work continued. In September 2008, the federal government provided $297,000 to fund a study of the plan; Amtrak and state governments matched these funds for a total of $594,000. Planners anticipate 13.6 million riders over the entire network by the year 2025. The Chicago to Milwaukee '' Hiawatha Service'' was planned to be expanded to

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...

, but the project was then nixed in 2011 by then Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. In 2009, the Spanish manufacturer

Talgo Talgo (officially Patentes Talgo, SAU) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains. Corporate history TALGO, an abbreviation of Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol (English: ''Lightweight articulated tr ...

had agreed to open a plant in Wisconsin in order to build 110-mph trains for the ''Hiawatha'' route and other improved corridors;Doyle enters Midwest pact to pursue high-speed rail funds
/ref> however, due to the cancellation of construction in Wisconsin, Talgo has scaled back plans from a manufacturing plant to a maintenance facility, leading the City of Milwaukee to consider legal action against the state.
/ref>

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

In 2009, the federal government allocated $8 billion in the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

to be divided up among rail projects around the country. States in the Midwest made 24 applications to the government, and on January 28, 2010, the White House announced that the Chicago network would receive money for three of its requests, and two other grants were made to Midwestern states. The Chicago-based routes receiving funding were: *$1.131 billion for Chicago–St. Louis–Kansas City ($1.1 billion for Chicago–St. Louis, $31 million for St. Louis–Kansas City) *$823 million for Chicago–Milwaukee–Madison–Minneapolis/St. Paul ($810 million for Milwaukee–Madison, $12 million for Chicago–Milwaukee, remaining $600,000 to study possible alignments to the Twin Cities.) *$244 million for Chicago–Pontiac–Detroit An additional $400 million was released for the 3C corridor in Ohio connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati, and $17 million was allocated to Iowa. Many of the corridors receiving funding at this time were originally designated as high-speed rail corridors following the 1991 ISTEA legislation.

2010

In October 2010, the Chicago Hub received more money from the FY 2010 High Speed Rail Allocation. The major grants were: *$230 million for Chicago–Quad Cities–Iowa City *$161 million for Chicago–Detroit Following the 2010 gubernatorial elections in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, both newly elected governors repeated their intentions of shutting down the projects in these two states and returning the money to the federal government. Following the return of funds, the federal government redirected the $145 million intended for Wisconsin and Ohio to the State of Washington's high-speed rail corridor, and to Connecticut to modernize the

New Haven-Springfield Line New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

Chicago-St. Louis rail line upgrades

Before the upgrades,

passenger trains had a top speed of 79 MPH on the line between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and St. Louis, and freight trains had a top speed of 60 MPH. In the fall of 2012, the section of the Chicago-St. Louis line between

Pontiac, Illinois Pontiac is a city in Livingston County, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,931 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Livingston County. The town is also the setting of the 1984 movie '' Grandview, U.S.A.'' Geography Location ...

, and Dwight, Illinois, began Amtrak service at 110 MPH, as a demonstration section. In 2014 construction began to upgrade the entire rail line between

Carlinville, Illinois Carlinville is a city and the county seat of Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. It is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and the former home of Prairie Farms Dairy. As of the 2020 ...

, and

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will and Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 census, the city was the third-largest in Illinois, with a population of 150,362. His ...

, so that

could run its passenger trains at 110 MPH. In addition, freight trains will be able to operate at 70 MPH. The entire cost of the high-speed rail program was estimated at $1.8 billion, with the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...

committing $1.6 billion of that, later lowered to $1.4 billion. It is estimated that $1.2 billion will be spent on the program by the end of 2016. Beginning December 20, 2021 Amtrak trains are now running up to between Chicago and St Louis. This reduced travel time by 15 minutes between the two cities. Amtrak hopes to upgrade the line to operation by June 2023 which would save an additional 45 minutes in travel time.

References

External links