The FRA's New Midwest Rail Plan and CrossRail Chicago
Channel: High Speed Rail Alliance
Date: 2021-12-06

In this video we take a look at the FRA’s new Midwest Regional Rail Plan and discuss the importance of building a high-capacity, dedicated passenger line through Chicago to make the proposed network a reality.

The Federal Railroad Administration’s Midwest Regional Rail Plan, released October 13, lays out a compelling vision for a network of high-speed trains that would transform travel across the Midwest. 

The plan envisions a network that consists of four “pillar corridors” radiating out from Chicago, with endpoints in Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Detroit. These high-speed lines form the backbone of the system and would be integrated with transit systems and regional lines. This would make connections much faster and easier between hundreds of cities throughout the Midwest. 

In order for this network to work, Chicago needs to be prepared to handle increased rail traffic. That’s why we’ve proposed CrossRail Chicago. CrossRail would create a north-south route through Chicago to connect fast region regional trains, airport trains, and high-speed trains from around the Midwest to Union Station and O’Hare.

Both of these proposals are inextricably linked in the effort to bring high-speed trains to the Midwest.

You can read more about the FRA's Midwest Regional Rail Plan here: https://hsrail.org/blog/fras-new-midwest-regional-rail-plan 

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