Chicago Milwaukee Hiawatha HSR ? | Taking Back The Rails | Chicago Hub Network

The economic impact of the expensive option to make Milwaukee and Chicago just 36 minutes apart is super intriguing.

Its like 2:15 am rn and I wanted to go to sleep, but this is more important to watch

This is such a sensible thing that should be done. For how close and how large Chicago and Milwaukee are, we really should have faster train service. 45 mins from downtown to downtown would be AMAZING. And it would absolutely get the ridership. The Hiawatha is already one of Amtraks most profitable lines outside the NEC, this would make it so much better. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if Brightline comes in and makes this happen for their start in Brightline Midwest.

As your numbers suggest, I think the potential of even 110-125 mph rail with frequent service avoiding freight holdups (call it Brightline Florida-style rail) in a lot of midwestern markets like this is really interesting, and the costs are really quite low and attractive given the return and possibility of creating whole new regions of rail users. Or, it could pay for about half of one tunnel in the NEC. Alas.

A more interesting option would be "Putting Back the Rails". Look into the option or relaying the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee main line. That was an electric railway that operated off of a connection with the Chicago L system. It was running dedicated 100+ mph electrified passenger service in the 1940s. The main line has largely been turned into walking paths, but with one exception where an industrial park crosses the path, could be returned to railway use.

Your estimated speed between Union Station and the Milwaukee airport is only ~6 minutes slower than taking the blue line to O’Hare. Just based off of fact that alone, the ticket revenue would pay back the construction costs in about two years

Top notch as usual. One thing that passenger rail advocates sometimes miss is that making things tougher for rail freight can has bad environmental consequences, if it increases the incentive to switch to road freight...

Could we keep going to Minneapolis/St. Paul? This Milwaukee Road trains use to average 112~mph in the 1930's so I assume the Geometry gets better as you go northwest.

Didn't realize how close Chicago and Milwaukee actually are.

Speaking of radical changes: With the situation at MKE airport I immediately had the urge to swap the rail alignment and Howell Avenue, since that would eliminate the shuttle bus, saving another few minutes for passengers going to the airport. (Also, any buses going to either location would likely want to stop at both the airport and the rail station, which would be a single stop instead of two if they were in the same place.) I was surprised to find out that they are basically perfectly aligned to have the rail go down Howell Avenue. You would "just" need to evict 50-ish houses on Greeley Street to get it connected back to a rail alignment on the Milwaukee side. Oh, and a series of businesses would loose freight rail sidings.

I mean, consistent 110 mph between Chicago and Milwaukee would be a huge upgrade from the current Amtrak service which crawls

Instead of making the a Rail trench for the crossings, you could have the road go over or under the tracks. That’s what they are doing with CHSR

Bring it to the Cities too!!! 🗣🗣

I think this should be done on the old CNW shore line to Milwaukee, a lot more people could benefit, like Metra passengers as well.

I would analyze departing from Ogilvie and taking the UP-NW to the video’s first diamond crossing in Mayfair but avoid crossing it by veering onto the abandoned ROW that is now the Skokie Valley Line Trail (I say this as a frequent user of that trail but willing to sacrifice it back to better and higher use). This merges with the Northern end of the CTA Yellow Line which quickly ends. Beyond is more abandoned ROW that used to be a fast bypass line to express to Milwaukee without stopping at the local North Shore communities (like the UP-N does). The corridor is used for transmission lines so we have more reason to electrify. I believe this is the straighter alignment that @Lucidstew wanted to switch over to. It will have less curves to straighten but grade crossings and bridges and replacing the removed track up until Northbrook will be expensive.

Great video as always! Chicago will always be a tough to crack, because of the dizzying number of at grade crossings—both road and rail! Not to mention Metra further complicating the rail operations. After much deliberation and considering Chicago’s context, I settled on converting Metra service to an El train directly over the existing tracks with enough clearance for freight and HSR. Local trains get the El, HSR and freight get the original tracks.

Another great video! Shame that Talgo was screwed over by Wisconsin. Their dual-mode high-speed trainsets might have been great for this route, they're now even making a dual mode hydrogen-electric version of the Talgo 250, which can go 155 mph.

Awww I was hoping to see The Milwaukee Road Hiawatha color scheme with pantographs over the cars, including the dome view end car

Can u put some kinda speedometer in the corner of these videos

Why couldn't Chicago's Metra, Amtrak & CTA get together and create a unified transportation station, located at Mayfair, Illinois? That would allow for more convenient transfers between the CTA subway line serving O'Hare airport and Mayfair, where Amtrak's Hiawatha or other northbound trains already transit through, but do not stop, until the Glenview station some 12 miles further north.