I'd probably say that money is better spent on more frequency on the route than trying to increase speed by a bit. Amtrak has the same "higher speed" service in Michigan to Chicago but the infrequent service keeps it from being truely competitive with driving.
this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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$2 Billion to go 20mph faster than before? I mean, progress is progress but honestly this is pathetic.
It's also only 297miles and 4.5 hours via car.
Not gonna get people to take the train if, even with this ($2B) speed increase, it still is losing to a car.
If the train makes that trip in three hours, you'll get converts.
It's not really losing to the car. The article says the train will now also be less than five hours, so the time difference is honestly not that much. There are also four trips daily which is sadly quite good nowadays in America. You can leave from St. Louis at 4:30 AM, 6:35 AM, 2:55 PM, and 5:40 PM. You can leave Chicago at 7:15 AM, 9:50 AM, 5:20 PM, and 7:10 PM. Coach costs like $25-$31, while the car trip would cost you around $68. Instead of focusing on driving for 4.5 hours, you can relax or do work for five hours. Compared to less frequent routes (Pennsylvanian 😒) you also have several options for departure and don't need to arrive at the station before the sun even rises. Someone who knows more about planes can tell me a flight would make any sense.
As someone who goes between Philly and Pittsburgh a couple times a year, if the shitty Pennsylvanian service was upgraded to be like the new Lincoln Service, I'd be really happy!
Oh, and for price that ends up $7 million per mile. Not sure how that compares.
Yeah I'd really hope that the upgrades pave the way for even higher potential speeds, like if the limiting factor is now old Amtrak trainsets instead of the rail itself. Or if a new line means less delays. 20 minutes out of 5 hours is really not much.
Illinois fucking rocks, though