Higher Speed Rail

Not quite a quantum leap, but improving:

On Amtrak's Wolverine service, which goes from Chicago to Ann Arbor, Mich., and then to Detroit and Pontiac, Mich., the train reaches speeds of up to 110 mph. It's the fastest of any U.S. train outside the Northeast Corridor. It is quite a feat, even though the train is only able to go that fast over about a 90-mile portion of the trip.
"It's got to be viewed as only the beginning," says Joe Szabo, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. He says additional track and signal improvements are underway to help speed up trains throughout the Midwest.
"So in the next two to two-and-a-half years, you're going to see almost 80 percent of Chicago-Detroit and almost 80 percent of Chicago-St. Louis at sustained speeds of 110 mph."
That would reduce travel times on those routes to fewer than four hours, making the train faster than driving and competitive with flying, says Szabo.
Both the Michigan and Illinois routes are benefiting because other states have been turning down funding for high-speed rail funds.
Republican governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida sent back hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funding. They argued that few people would ride the trains, which would leave their states on the hook for millions in opcoulderating subsidies.
So that makes Michigan's Republican Gov. Rick Snyder an outlier of sorts because he sees spending on high-speed rail as a wise investment.

Thanks, Kasich, you jerk.  You are right, we definitely won't have people riding trains if there are no trains to ride.  The Northeast corridor is great to ride.  If we would have taken the federal money to establish the 3C line from Cincinnati to Cleveland, we could have established a ridership base, then gotten funds to improve speeds.  But, no, Mr. Kasich had to make the point that he is a stupid asshole.