Daley Still Pushing High-Speed Train To O'Hare

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 27, 2010 9:40PM

Even though he's out the door next spring, Mayor Daley is back from a visit to China loaded with nifty ideas and he's really, really pushing his high-speed train to O'Hare idea. According to Daley, our friends in China and Korea want to help us make this magical unicorn train to the airport a reality: “They’re all interested. … Everybody’s interested. ... They want to design it. They want to build it, operate and maintain it … with people working here." Daley insisted his leaving office wouldn't deter these investors from wanting to get involved and then played the "everyone else has one" card:

“You have to have a high-speed train from your international airport to downtown. ... That will rebuild our commercial market and our hospitality industry,” he said.

“Great cities have [a] high-speed train from the airport downtown. ... Once you make that contact from the airport downtown, it keeps building your downtown businesses, jobs and taxes, and that’s what you have to have.”

Daley has already formed the "O'Hare Express Blue Ribbon Committee" to look into the feasibility of such a high-speed rail operating as a privately-owned entity.