What would passenger rail look like if the freight companies DIDNT own the vast majority of the rail rights of way in the United States? What if, instead, those routes were dedicated to providing high speed passenger rail service? This sub-series seeks to go beyond the hype and find out if the freight rail rights of way are even any good for the purpose. We'll start with a classic passenger rail route: the old Milwaukee Road Hiawatha between Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This same route is currently used by Amtrak for their Hiawatha Service. We'll take a look at what the current route can bear, electrified and freed of its freight rail constraints. We'll also look at fast HSR could reasonably get, and compare that to a higher speed diesel-electric option. In other words, we're Taking Back The Rails!

Image Attribution:

"A Hiawatha Service train at Glenview station in October 2018"
by David Wilson
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Lucid Group Discord Channel Invite:

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Chapters:

0:00 Hey It's Your Old Pal Lucid Stew
0:22 Purpose of Taking Back The Rails/Chicago
3:05 Suburban Chicago Issues
6:04 High Speed North of Rondout Illinois
6:42 More Issues Near and North of the Wisconsin Border
7:46 Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport
8:58 Milwaukee/Why electrify?
9:40 Milwaukee Intermodal Station
10:36 Let's Upgrade!
11:39 Let's Compare!
12:30 Conclusion/Up Next
12:52 See You On That Big, Beautiful Freeway!

Topics:

High Speed Rail
HSR
Freight Rail
Chicago
Milwaukee Road
Hiawatha
Chicago Union Station
Passenger Rail
Nationalization of Rail
Mandated Electrification
Union Pacific
Regional Rail
Commuter Rail
METRA
Western Ave. Station
Grand Ave. Facility
Diamond Crossing
OWLS
At-grade Crossing
Grade Separation
Morton Grove Illinois
METRA North Glenview Station
Glenview
Rondout
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited
Green Oaks
Illinois
Wisconsin
Rosecrans
Milwaukee Subdivision
Chicago & Milwaukee Subdivision
Sturtevant Wisconsin
Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport
Oak Creek
Electrification
Diesel-Electric
Siemens Charger
Milwaukee Intermodal Station
Interstate 794
The Hop
Deerfield