Somehow I missed it too. After living 3 years in w. Arlington Hts, where literally the only airplanes noticed were the 747s leaving mid-day for Asia, 'tis a shame that ORD is being held up.

Slightly off topic, but there is an interesting museum in Union, IL (IL Railway Museum) that has a car from the North Shore Line. In the late 40s/early 50s, they offered interurban service from the Loop to downtown MKE in 55 minutes. I daresay you couldn't get between the two that fast now. (trains circled the Loop, then went up over what is now the Skokie Swift trackage, then straight north).

Chicago is fortunate that there is still sufficient population density to make rail appropriate. Interesting to see the post on the train between ORD and MDW--that would be an interesting option--expensive to build but very efficient.

I'd just be concerned that this would get us Regional Jet he**, with every town for an hours' flight angling to have flights to both airports, instead of a single flight in a, say 7x7, to MDW. I can just see STL (also MCI, DTW, MSP, IND,...) with "Now boarding AA Eagle xxx to ORD" "Now boarding AA Eagle yyy to MDW" "Now boarding UA Express AAA to ORD" "Now boarding UA Express ZZZ to MDW"

Now 500 miles for the connection, now we're talking

jl