Newsletter 7/12/24: Milwaukee Regional Rail & the Revolutionary Shinkansen

Metra’s UP North Line: A New Path to Chicago-Milwaukee Regional Rail

Chicago and Milwaukee are big enough, and close enough, that hourly service should be the minimum.

Rebuilding the Union Pacific’s lakefront line to extend Metra’s UP North service is the quickest way to make it happen. Intermediate cities like Racine, Kenosha, Waukegan, and Evanston make the case even stronger.

If done right, it can be a springboard to regional rail for Green Bay, Madison, and many other towns.

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A southbound Metra train is arriving at the recently opened Ravenswood station.
Passengers are waiting on the platform as a Shinkansen train arrives.

Shinkansen: How High-Speed Rail Transformed a Nation

Translating to “new trunk line” from Japanese, the Shinkansen is Japan’s high speed rail network connecting many major cities and population centres across the country. First opening in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics, the system heralded Japan’s emergence as a restored and booming economy, inspiring many other countries to create their own high-speed railways.

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Putting America Back On Track: The Case for a 21st Century Public Rail System

Maddock Thomas, an undergraduate at Brown University, presents a strong case for redeveloping the United States’ passenger rail system. The report is comprehensive in its exploration of public passenger rail, arguing for its return, its history in the country, its role in the present day, examining international systems, and analyzing models for successful service.

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Designing Brightline's New Las Vegas Station

When: Friday, August 2 at 12pm CT on Zoom

Join us for a discussion with Andrew Byrne, Managing Partner at Grimshaw.

We will provide more details about this webinar soon.

City Limits: A Conversation with Megan Kimble

When: Friday, August 16 at 12pm CT on Zoom

Join us for a discussion with Megan Kimble, author of the recently published “City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways.”

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