HIGH-SPEED RAIL PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MIDWEST

Chicago, as the prime city of the Midwest, has a special interest in the prospective role of improved high-speed railroad transportation in relation to the future of mid-America. As the largest metropolis in the million-square-mile area between the Appalachians and the Rockies, the Arctic and the Gulf, and as the dominant transportation node of the continental interior, Chicago must be greatly concerned about the geographic shifts in location of economic activity and population which, in part at least, will be brought about or facilitated by the prospective improvements in railroad transportation that ma result from the success of the experiments now under way in the Northeast Corridor of the United States, the Toronto-Montreal axis in Canada, the Tokaido line connecting the principal metropolitan areas of Japan, and elsewhere. This paper discusses how the development of high-speed rail passenger transportation has helped in the regional development of the Midwest.