>>1648945Here's an idea to get away from the Chicago deadlock that the current rail system faces.
>Finish Northern Lights MSP-Duluth route>Expand across UP from Duluth to Mackinaw>Mackinaw splits to Grand Rapids, Port Huron, and Pontiac/DetroitThis would alleviate a lot of the pressure on having all the western lines deal with Chicago traffic. Anyone who's taken a cross-country line will tell you that Chicago, while well built for trains, is a massive traffic jam. Other option for this would be expanding Hiawatha to connect with this line. I'd spitball going through Green Bay and linking the two near Marquette, MI; maybe even building a line from Green Bay to the Twin Cities through Eau Claire later down the road.
For southern routes to bypass Chicago, here's another option.
>Finish Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati lineThis alone will make Ohio's rail system 100x better.
>Direct service Cincinnati-Louisville>Louisville-Carbondale>Carbondale-St LouisHonestly, I would only worry about an Ohio River route making a St Louis into a different traffic jam, but even that wouldn't be nearly as bad as how the Chicago routes are currently. Additionally, a St Louis-Carbondale line would be a great candidate for connecting the proposed Nashville-Savannah line, giving the whole state of Illinois a prime "dispersed hub" sort of setup.
