The High Speed Rail Alliance (HSRA) (until late 2019, named the Midwest High Speed Rail Association (MHSRA)) was founded in 1993 and is based in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. The association is a non-profit, member-supported organization that primarily advocates for world-class 220-mph high-speed trains linking major cities and supports fast, frequent and dependable trains on other routes that connect with 220-mph corridors to form a modern national rail network. The High Speed Rail Alliance's executive director, Richard Harnish, believes it is time for America to “catch up” with European and Asian countries in terms of using high-speed rail systems. The association is an active member of fourbillion.com, a coalition of advocacy organizations that worked to secure a $4 billion appropriation in 2010 for high-speed rail in the U.S. The effort began after the US House of Representatives passed a bill that included $4 billion for high-speed rail. The Senate cut the allocation down to $1.2 billion in their version. The two bills were in a conference committee. In June 2009, The High Speed Rail Alliance released a transportation engineering study of a 220-mph rail corridor in the Midwest. The 220-mph high-speed link would cut the trip from Chicago to St. Louis to 1 hour and 52 minutes and also serve

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport is the primary international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, United States, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, Loop business district. The airport is ope ...

as well as key Illinois business, university and government centers in Kankakee,

Champaign Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in the state outside the Chicago metr ...

, Decatur, Springfield and Edwardsville. The line would cost between 12 billion and 13 billion dollars. The HSRA views the Chicago-St. Louis link as the first of a regional 220-mph high-speed rail network that would link

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, the

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Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

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and

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, putting more than 35 million people within a three-hour train ride of Chicago. In a proposal to the U.S. Department of Transportation, SNCF, operator of the TGV high-speed rail network in France, estimated that a Midwestern 220-mph high-speed rail network would create 677,000 permanent jobs and 316,000 construction jobs. Automobile trips would be reduced by 4.3 billion vehicle miles each year, saving 3 million barrels of oil each year, and additionally reduce CO₂ and other pollutant emissions by 1.4 million tons in 2030. The total estimated cost for the network is $68.5 billion. Advocates for high-speed rail put that cost in perspective by pointing out that the Interstate Highway System cost 450 billion in 2008 dollars. The High Speed Rail Alliance has been a vocal critic of libertarian and conservative activists who view HSRA as distorting the record and facts on high-speed rail. In July 2009, it released a document responding to statements by the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...

and the Reason Foundation about high-speed rail.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.hsrail.org High-speed rail in the United States Rail advocacy organizations in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Chicago

See also

References

External links