(The following story by Jason Miller appeared on The News-Dispatch website on November 5.)
MICHIGAN CITY, Mich. — Tom Jachimiec likes the idea of high-speed rail. He can see the benefits for people traveling to cities throughout the Midwest and, from experience, knows the fast trains are pretty neat to ride in.
And, he understands that despite their name, the high-speed trains likely won’t pose a threat to cities like Michigan City when they roll through town.
“The high-speed train would have to go pretty slow through Michigan City anyway because of the turntable bridge over Trail Creek and the lack of a lot of straightaway track through the west side of town,” said the Long Beach resident who lives near the Norfolk Southern tracks along U.S. 12.
“I rode one of those very high-speed trains from Paris to Bourdeaux, France, about 12 years ago and it was wonderful.”
While Jachimiec’s reasoning is a bit off – Amtrak’s high-speed project wouldn’t run along the northern route, but along a more southern route – his assumption is correct.
Amtrak does plan to run passenger trains at speeds up to 110 miles per hour on a route from Niles, Mich., to a spot in Porter County, but the speeds would slow drastically in urban areas, said Mark Magliari, a regional chief for Amtrak.
Currently, the passenger line is conducting high-speed trials from Niles to the south, but Magliari said the full-scale conversion to high speed is years away.
“Right now, north of Niles, trains are going around 95 (mph),” Magliari said. “In Michigan City, there are two routes that pass through and around. The route to Detroit isn’t in the plan, mainly because it goes across swing bridges.”
Amtrak runs two routes through Michigan City, one of which crosses Trail Creek and runs behind City Hall. The other travels south of Michigan City near Ames Field.
The north-end route is called the Pere Marquette and travels through Grand Rapids, Holland and St. Joseph in Michigan, and Michigan City. The other, called the Wolverine, travels from Pontiac, Mich., through Niles and New Buffalo, south of Michigan City, and into Chicago.
The Wolverine is the track currently being tested for high speed.
Currently, Amtrak also runs high-speed routes in the Mid-Atlantic. The Acela Line reaches speeds of 150 miles per hour, according to Amtrak, and travels from Washington, D.C.., to Boston.
Magliari said he’s heard Amtrak has had troubles with the Acela line, but hopes they’ve been fixed.
“I know the trains here in the U.S. will not be going as fast as those in Europe or Japan,” he said, “but we are finally making a start, and it would be nice to see this begin in the Midwest.”