The Illinois Dept. of Transportation will tap into $1.2 billion of federal stimulus money this September to start construction on a high-speed rail corridor from Chicago to St. Louis. Now that this long-rumored project is a reality, local groups are concerned about how it impacts their communities -- and how it creates jobs.

The nation's biggest public works project could end up as the biggest boondoggle in history, according to Mike Rosenberg and Gary Richards of the San Jose Mercury News, who scour up a myriad of reasons why linking California's major cities by high speed rail will be a colossal failure.

The future is here -- and it's nothing to get excited about. The Chicago Tribune's Richard Wronski reports on the strikingly modest 30-year plan for Chicago transportation projects, drawn up by the Chicago Metropolitan Area Planning area.

In southern California the car may still be king, but the train is making tracks. Officials hope a novel financing plan, pushed by Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will garner federal aid faster and help the region realize a long-held dream, re-building its once robust commuter rail network. The crux of the plan would roll funds from a recently approved transportation sales tax surcharge into leveraging a big federal loan

[caption id="attachment_9665" align="alignleft" width="152" caption="CTA train"][/caption] The Chicago Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch reports that the majority of suburban Chicago residents would rather see money spent on mass transit than roads or highways. Fifty-four percent of suburban residents would prefer government money be spent on public transportation, while thirty-two percent want to first fund roads and highways. These numbers are reversed from ten years ago. The main reasons are the congestion and gridlocked traffic around Chicago, the price of gas, and, to a lesser extent, the environmental and cost-saving benefits of mass transit. Hilkevitch points out that 30 years ago suburban residents wanted none of their money going to the Chicago Transit Authority, the city's main subway/elevated train system. Well, so what? The federal and state government both seem ill-equipped to deal with changing public sentiment.

After a nearly-fatal blow, a wildly expensive California airport monorail project may be back on track. According to the San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Cabanatuan, officials with a regional rail agency will consider plans Thursday to revive a 3.1-mile automated monorail project that critics assail as wildly expensive, painfully slow, and in violation of Civil Rights laws.

After more than a year of discussion, Illinois will begin construction this September on a high-speed rail corridor between Chicago and St. Louis.  According to David Ormsby of the Illinois Observer, the state's Dept. of Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad have agreed to begin construction upgrades on a series of 90-mile road segments.

Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock and some of his GOP colleagues in Congress see signs that advertise completion of stimulus projects as a pressing national issue.

The Springfield State-Journal Register reports that the Dept. of Transportation has provided $9 million to Illinois transit agencies -- mostly for airport safety upgrades.

The Chicago Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch reports that two federal transportation grants will come Chicago's way, with the majority of the money helping an already transit-rich downtown.