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Last new rail, ties installed on Chicago-St. Louis higher speed route
Awesome! Finally getting there after more than 20 years of planning, testing, and rebuilding. Congrats Illinois, you have now made it to the late 20th Century (circa 1970s). Sorry for my tongue and cheek, but it is sad it has taken all these years and so much money for only 300 miles of rail to be upgraded to what Europe has had for over 40 years. I am grateful you stayed the course. So seriously, congrats on your accomplishments.
Where did the previous multiple pages of comments on this topic go? Today you state there has been one comment thus far on this topic. But 3 days ago you had 3 or more pages’ worth on this subject. What happened?
Apologize for the sarcasm, but stated any other way, it would be blunt and harsh! This is fantastic! $1.7 billion and the top speed will be about 10-15% greater than what was in existence 60 years ago. Can’t wait to see the estimated cost for getting to 150 MPH (perhaps $15-30 billion). Bring back the Green Diamond.
It’s pricy, yes, but it gets a lot pricier for each mi/h you go up. Cheap at the low end, muccchhhh more expensive later. Besides, like it or not, trains today only go 79 mi/h so this is a 40% speed-up.
You know it’s interesting. PTC would seem to meet the requirements of that ancient ICC docket (#29543) that says trains traveling 80 mi/h or faster needed cab signals and ATS … so will we see speed limits raised on lines that are getting PTC and that have Class 5 track? I’m lead to believe that there is a lot of that track around and a lot of it will be getting PTC. Even 90 is better than 80. 