Economic Benefits
The Midwest is in a global competition to attract and retain talent and capital. High-speed trains are critical to winning that competition because our No. 1 challenge is that we lack fast, coherent linkages that can help us function as one economic force.
We live in a world where companies make investment decisions based not only on such factors as workforce and industrial base, but also transportation infrastructure. A GM executive, for instance, can look at Spain and see that it's actually easier to go from GM's Spanish office in Madrid to a plant in Zaragoza via a bullet train than it it is to get from Detroit to other parts of Michigan or other parts of the Midwest.
In fact, the plane-plus-train combination makes Zaragoza faster to get to and more attractive from Detroit itself than many locations in the Midwest and the rest of the U.S.
Our region must close this competitive gap, and fast.
In addition to turning the Midwest into one compact economic power than can compete globally, bullet trains will bring:
- $13.8 billion per year increase in business sales for the Chicago Metro area alone
- 104,000 new jobs and an additional $5.5 billion in wages each year in the Chicago Metro area resulting from increased economic activity
- Major boost in business and tourism activity: 30% of trips by high speed rail do not occur otherwise
- $314 million in new annual visitor spending in downtown Chicago alone
- Stronger convention centers and airports, with the equivalent of 80 feeder flights rolling daily into an airport like O'Hare from places with little or no air service now
- Revitalized manufacturing: Several manufacturers have U.S. facilities that can ramp up production of new trains quickly
