High-speed rail picks up speed in Illinois
Written by jrood
Illinois Secretary of Transportation Gary Hannig will meet April 1with Union Pacific officials in Omaha, Neb., to talk about using the freight company's rail line for high-speed trains heading from Joliet to St. Louis, the Joliet, Ill., Herald reports.
"We want to make sure
that we can get the trains to arrive and depart on time," he said at a
Joliet Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Harrah’s Casino. "We also
need a commitment from Union Pacific that those tracks will be maintained and
that we can run 110 mph high-speed rail up and down the line."
The Illinois Department of
Transportation and Union Pacific will have to work out an agreement on signals
and dispatching issues, too, Hannig added.
The federal government has
given Illinois $1.1 billion to get the project moving.
The high-speed rail will
stretch from Chicago to St. Louis with several stops along the way. The first
stop out of Chicago will be in Joliet.
High-speed trains will use
Canadian National freight lines from Chicago to Joliet, but Union Pacific lines
from Joliet to St. Louis, said Joliet City Manager Tom Thanas.
Thanas said he was happy to
hear the project is moving forward. "I think it will open up tremendous economic
development opportunities for downtown Joliet," he said. "Companies
make money by saving time."
Thanas said businesses will
want to locate near the high-speed rail line, which could mean more development
and jobs for the city.
IDOT wants to have the line
up and running by 2012, Hannig said. Initially there will be five trains on the
line with a possible expansion to eight.
Hannig said the trains will
run at 110 mph at first then increase to 220 mph in the future, which is the
speed European and Asian high-speed trains travel.
