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Issue: 1157 Date: 10/25/2012
Become A Fan, Like St. Louis Chinese American News
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Illinois Doubling Down On High-Speed Rail
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| Officials rode an Amtrak train at 110 mph in central Illinois Friday. Credit (St. Louis Public Radio) |
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(October 19, 2012) Illinois Governor Pat Quinn was on board Friday when an Amtrak train reached speeds of 111 mph for the first time along a Chicago to St. Louis route. The train hit the mark on a stretch between Dwight and Pontiac before braking back to normal speeds of 79 mph. By the end of November, paying passengers will get to experience the higher speeds on that initial section between Dwight and Pontiac.
The trip is meant to showcase part of the state's new high-speed rail line which will eventually run all the way to St. Louis. When the high-speed line is complete, sometime in 2015, Amtrak hopes the new faster service will lure travelers away from other means of transport, like airlines.
Amtrak trains traveling in the Midwest currently travel around 80 m.p.h, Amtrak hopes to boost speeds up to 110 m.p.h. Marc Magliari, a spokesperson for Amtrak, says the company wants to cut travel time between St. Louis and Chicago to around four hours.
"Right now we are about two hours longer than flying. We're going to get that within an hour of flying or less over time and we'll get more business that right now is flying," says Magliari.
Magliari says faster trains mean more round trips per day, which for many travelers is an even bigger selling point than just speed.
"Those are key elements when you sell travel. And certainly we've shown that everywhere we've added frequency and reduced travel times, the ridership goes through the roof because people are looking for better options than driving or flying."
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