Chicago Hub Network (Napoleon's World)

The Chicago Hub Network describes an intercity rail network based primarily out of Chicago's Union Station and which connects high-speed rail to a variety of cities in the Midwest. The Chicago Hub was devised in the late 1980s and implemented as part of the early 1990s push for high speed rail after fits and starts in the 1970s. The first Chicago Hub route, the IC Hiawatha Express, connected to Milwaukee in 65 minutes starting in 2001, and the IC Cardinal to St. Louis in three hours debuted in 2004. Lines to Indianapolis, Detroit, and Carbondale in southern Illinois have since opened, and an expansion to Des Moines Iowa and an expansion through Wisconsin were in the works before being cancelled in the early 2010s. Three of the lines can achieve top speeds of 155-165 miles per hour, the fastest outside of the Northeast Corridor or the California Express. As of 2017, rail rather than passenger airlines captures over 55% of intercity traffic between Chicago and Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit.