Reinventing the Midwest Economy: International Connections

Being a player in the global marketplace requires daily flights to global centers around the world.

Those critical international flights are concentrated at O'Hare International Airport, fed by smaller jets from around the Midwest.

But higher fuel prices threaten to break those connections, even though the federal government subsidizes air service to smaller cities. (The Associated Press reported in June 2008 that airlines had asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to opt out of 20 smaller cities that year - 24 cities were dropped in 2007 - because fuel costs are outpacing subsidies.)

If linked directly to O'Hare, and other airports, high-speed trains will protect those connections while serving more cities with more frequent service than today's feeder planes, making international and long-distance domestic flights more viable. Click here to learn more.