Time for high-speed rail and Michigan to meet

Detroit to Chicago in under three hours sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well, that’s the plan, hopefully. A bunch of Midwestern governors, including ours, put together a letter requesting a high-speed rail linking a number of our Midwestern cities… and when they say high-speed, they really mean it. They’re talkin’ ’bout 110 mph.Excerpt:Last month, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and seven other Midwestern governors signed a letter asking Washington for a share of that stimulus money to breathe life into a long-dormant dream of high-speed rail service connecting Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Louis and all points between. The states’ plan is called the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. They first got together in the mid-1990s to promote and design a better way of quickly moving people around the industrial heartland. Fast, clean, efficient and affordable transportation can help tighten the “Rust Belt” into a region knitted tightly together with high-speed rail service. How does this grab you? Downtown Detroit to downtown Chicago in three hours and 46 minutes: Around $57, according to a 2004 Rail Initiative report. And you arrive fresh and ready for a day of doing business or a Saturday of just wandering down the Miracle Mile.Read the entire article here.