The stimulus package allocated $8 billion to high-speed rails, in addition to $5 billion over five years laid out in the 2010 budget. Obama highlighted 10 rail corridors that could receive federal money, including one that serves the route from Detroit to Chicago.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, along with seven other Midwestern governors, signed a request last week for $3.4 billion to begin updating the tracks.

The first-round grants, which would go toward upgrading and increasing speed on existing tracks, could be announced by the Transportation Department as early as the end of summer, according to The Associated Press.

Existing trains in the United States travel no faster than 80 mph, and building high-speed rails would allow them to travel at about 110 mph, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.

“Michigan is especially well situated because we own the tracks from the Indiana border up to Kalamazoo,” Magliari said. “On those tracks, we have been testing speeds of 95 miles per hour.”

Because passenger trains share the tracks with freight trains, the signaling system between trains will have to be improved to diminish delays as passenger trains wait for
freight trains, which can only travel at 45 mph, Magliari said.

Although prices for a high-speed rail have not been determined, Magliari said tickets for faster Amtrak trains tend to be more expensive.

Accounting sophomore Jonathon Dicicco, who is from the metro-Detroit city of Sterling Heights, said he normally drives to Chicago, but if faster trains could cut down the travel time he would reconsider.

“It would be nice to get some time taken off, even if it’s just an hour,” he said. “I think it’s worth it, even with a raised price.”

But MSU economics professor Kenneth Boyer said improving the tracks won’t necessarily be enough to make public transportation a success in Michigan.

For the high-speed rail plan to work, cities along the route must have adequate public transportation, Boyer said.

“Chicago has good public transportation, but Detroit obviously does not,” he said. “Certainly, the outlook for a high-speed rail in Michigan is very dim.”

Still, Boyer said, the United States will need to move toward more rail transportation in upcoming decades.

“We’re going to realize that automobile-based transportation is not ideal for intercity transportation,” he said. “There are going to be too many cars, and we can’t build the amount of roads to accommodate them.”