An Amtrak passenger train hit a regional record of 111 miles per hour on Oct. 19 in a test run of the route between Chicago and St. Louis.
The five-car, two-engine Amtrak passenger train hit 111 mph — a notch above the target of 110 mph — for five minutes during its route. The train normally travels 79 mph or slower.
Amtrak said that the train will regularly travel at the newly proven speed on a 15-mile stretch between the cities of Dwight and Pontiac by this Thanksgiving and that the remainder of the route will be sped up by the year 2015.
The test run was attended by several political dignitaries, including Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who said, “Four years ago we were nowhere. Illinois and the country was a wasteland when it came to high speed rail. This is a dream come true today.”
Chicago Tribune reporter Jon Hilkevitch said the super-fast train traveled “like a jetliner slicing through calm air.”
Joseph Szabo, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, told Hilkevitch that the high speeds are made possible by a combination of new rails and smart engines that allow it to anticipate the speeds it will need to travel more than a mile in advance.
“That locomotive can sense whether there is any mass that is violating the safe zone inside the gates,” Szabo said. “If it senses a car, a human or anything, it shuts the train down or at least gets it below 20 mph depending on top-end speed.”
Meanwhile, another high-speed Amtrak route is being constructed to connect Chicago across Illinois to the Quad-Cities. That route was made possible after newly elected Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker rejected $810 million in federal funding to connect Chicago to Madison, which would have been the first leg of an eventual high-speed extension through Wisconsin to the Twin Cities.
Amtrak’s Hiawatha service between Chicago and Milwaukee is reporting record passenger levels.
