An Amtrak train arrives in St. Louis from Chicago Thursday. Train travel for Missouri residents will get faster after the Obama administration announced grants of $1.1 billion for development of a high-speed rail line between Chicago and St. Louis. Jeff Roberson/AP
St. Louis to Chicago in under two hours...on the train? Illinois Governor Quinn says it will be done. He says the state is committed to moving ahead with plans to connect Chicago to St. Louis and other cities in the Midwest using high-speed rail. There are also plans for high-speed rail lines to Rockford and Dubuque as well as Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin. Quinn says the current route from Chicago to St. Louis will see improved tracks. That would take today's Amtrak trains to around 90-miles per hour. There's also a possibility of an all-new high speed line between Edwardsville, Springfield and Chicago. On that line the trains would travel at just over 200 miles per hour making the St. Louis to Chicago trip, one hour and 50-minutes.
