Amtrak: Chicago-St. Louis Finally Attains 110 MPH

Art Peterson

After roughly 20 years of development, HrSR (higher-speed rail)* with speeds up to 110 mph will be in effect as of June 26 on Amtrak’s 284-mile Chicago-St. Louis corridor, on Lincoln Service and Missouri River Runner trains (300, 301, 302, 305, 306, 307, 318 and 319), as well as on the Texas Eagle. Trip time is reduced by 15 minutes from 90-mph run times and 30 minutes from 79-mph run times—less than two hours from Chicago to Bloomington-Normal and less than three hours to Springfield, with end-to-end St. Louis-Chicago schedules of under five hours.

HrSR was a joint effort of the Illinois DOT, Amtrak and primary host Class I Union Pacific, plus numerous consultants led by WSP USA. Other host railroads on the corridor are CN, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), and Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA). The project involved track upgrades, double-tracking, PTC and other infrastructure improvements. The shorter schedules, combined with new Siemens Charger diesel-electric locomotives and state-owned Amtrak Midwest Venture cars, also from Siemens, “we are completing a full makeover of this corridor service,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris.

Project cost came in just under $2 billion, including $1.66 billion in funding from a 2010 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant. The project broke ground in 2010, was completed in 2018, and went through five years of testing and incremental speed increases before full FRA safety certification was obtained.

*Railway Age coined the term “higher-speed rail” and its acronym, HrSR, more than 20 years ago. It is meant to differentiate passenger trains speeds up to 125 mph on corridors shared with freight trains from “true” high-speed rail (HSR) on dedicated right-of-way at speeds greater than 125 mph. While Amtrak’s Acela on the Northeast Corridor attains speeds up to 150 mph on very limited segments and operates at 125-135-mph on much of the route, it is technically not HSR. A broader term often used is “high-performance rail.” There is currently no true HSR in North America. The under-construction, long-delayed California High Speed Rail system will be the continent’s first true HSR, if it is ever completed.