Ed Rutledge for Lieutenant Governor

By Ed Rutledge

Libertarian for Illinois Lt. Governor

07/23/2010

Our politicians in Springfield just announced that construction will begin in late 2010 on a high-speed rail route between Chicago and St. Louis. Just imagine, those of us in northern Illinois will be able to get on a train after work, enjoy some toasted ravioli and a pork steak in St. Louis, and be back in Sweet Home Chicago with plenty of time to catch the evening news. No longer will we Illinoisans be forced to endure the derision of countries like Japan, Germany, and France. Frankly, this sounds pretty exciting!

But maybe we should temper our excitement for a moment, and reflect on what this really means. When was the last time you, living in northern Illinois, were in St. Louis? Or the last time you, living near St Louis, rode the Amtrak to Chicago? Why has it been so long? How many trips do you realistically see yourself making once the high speed rail is in place? If you are like most Illinoisans, then statistically you will ride this system less than 60 miles per year, and will make the round trip only once every 9 years.

But, you counter, this may be true now, forced as we are to rely on slow trains and cars, but just wait until we have access to bullet train speed – it will open up all kinds of opportunities for travel. A Chicagoan actually could have dinner in St. Louis and be home in time for the evening news. It will no longer be just a dream!

Again, perhaps we should look beyond the hype to see what actually is being proposed. By most definitions, Illinois’s high speed rail will not be high-speed, at all. With a top speed of 110 miles per hour, these trains only technically qualify to be called “moderate-speed rail.” True high speed passenger rail, averaging 125+ mph, requires a completely new installation of special purpose tracks, rather than just the proposed modifications to existing freight lines.

Well, 110 miles per hour is still pretty fast. Maybe it won’t let us have dinner in St. Louis and be home for the evening news, but it still turns the 5 hour trip into a 2.5 hour trip. That is a pretty substantial improvement.

Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but 110 mph is the maximum proposed speed. The average speed of these trains is projected to be 65-75 mph. At best, our politicians expect this rail system to get us from Chicago to St. Louis in just under 4 hours, which is an average speed of about 65 mph. The Amtrak line between Chicago and St. Louis currently averages 55-65 mph. And how fast do you drive? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that you drive above the speed limit…

Alright, our politicians will counter, you caught us. The goal of this project is not to get to get more Cubs fans down to Busch Stadium in hopes of rattling the Cardinals’ pitchers. The real goal of this project is to “create” jobs. It’s as simple as that. According to the government’s projections, this project is expected to create 900 jobs in Illinois right now and 6,000 jobs down the road (oops, rail). That is a lot of Illinoisans put back to work at a time when unemployment remains sky-high.

Well, now we are onto something. Reducing unemployment is a good thing. So how much will this job creation cost? According to our politicians, this moderate-speed rail system will cost $98 million right now, with a total price-tag of $1.2 billion. Taking our politicians at their word, for what that is worth, this translates to $110,000 per job created right now and $200,000 per job created overall. It is also projected that this rail line will require $80+ million in taxpayer subsidies every year going forward. This is expensive job creation, by any measure. Good thing Illinois is so flush with cash…

So Illinois’s high-speed rail program has nothing to do with high-speed rail, or linking Chicago to St. Louis? This is really just a job creation scheme in which taxpayers will get something which we already have but which we don’t use at a cost of billions of dollars? This just sounds like more Illinois politics from the same Illinois politicians.

How about this as an alternative? Why don’t we use the $1.2 billion to pay down some of Illinois’s debts, keep traveling at 65 mph, and call it a day? France will still sneer at us, but at least Illinois will be better off.

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