(The following appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on February 20, 2011.)
CHICAGO — In the future, one of the carriers serving travelers at O’Hare International Airport may be Amtrak.
Gov. Pat Quinn has asked Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman to conduct a study examining what it would take, logistically and financially, to commence fast, nonstop passenger rail service between Chicago Union Station and O’Hare, your Getting Around reporter has learned.
The governor envisions the proposed rail line, which at this point is strictly conceptual, as offering a more extensive reach than the O’Hare branch of the CTA Blue Line, which runs between the Loop and the airport, and Mayor Richard Daley’s plan for premium “Airport Express” service between the uncompleted Block 37 “super station” downtown and O’Hare.
Quinn’s plan certainly would not resemble the impractical idea for a bullet train to O’Hare that Daley toted home last year after he rode a magnetic levitation train in Shanghai. The Shanghai Transrapid maglev train must start braking shortly after reaching its top speed of 268 mph, and it doesn’t even go into downtown Shanghai.
The full story appears at ChicagoTribune.com.