This week, the rail service between Chicago and St. Louis upgraded to a higher-speed service. Now, trains on the Lincoln Service Route will travel up to 110 miles an hour. An increase of 20 miles per hour, this change is expected to shave off 15 to 30 minutes during the commute, making the overall trip between the two cities less than five hours.
Overall, the upgrade project took eight years of development and five years of testing, and cost nearly $2 billion. Some of this money was used to help upgrade the Springfield Amtrak station and build new stations in Dwight, Pontiac, Carlinville, and Alton. Railroad crossings were also fitted with more advanced measures to prevent collisions with vehicles on the tracks.