Chicago is the nation's rail hub, boasting 1,200 trains a day, 2,800 miles of track, 78 rail yards, and, often, frustrating and costly congestion. Bottlenecks can be so bad that freight trains, which take two days to make the 2,200-mile trip from the Port of Los Angeles, can spend almost as long inching across the Windy City.
It is one of many large infrastructure projects being discussed as a key part of a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus package being assembled in Congress and expected to be approved early in Barack Obama's presidency. The president-elect has vowed to create 2.5 million jobs in two years.
In Chicago, it's a little-known initiative with a catchy slogan, "Keeping the 'Go' in Chicago," that could gain. Formally the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program, or CREATE, it's a public-private partnership that has drawn up $1.5 billion of projects—only a few of which have been completed—to speed up rail traffic and relieve street congestion.
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