Glad to see that this thread (to which I was an early poster) has a new life. Chicago has always been the "midway" transportation point of our nation. I changed trains there (both railroads: Pennsy to Santa Fe, and stations: Union to LaSalle Street) on my first transcontinental train trip in 1942. I also changed there at Midway on my first coast to coast air trip after WWII. Now almost 60 years later, I consider it as the normal "hub" of our national air transportation system.

In an earlier post I commented on the noise that earlier jets used to make and the effect on suburbs so far removed from ORD that they would never have heard the sound of a prop plane. Today, the sound is not a big factor unless the location is right under the take-off runway.

But, in any event, this matter is bigger than just Illinois and Chicago. If the citizens there do not want to continue to accept their heritage of being the center/hub/midway point of our country's transportation, I feel sorry for them. They will be passing up a great opportunity. One of which DFW and STL will be happy to try to take AAadvantage.

I question whether the hometown airline (UA) will be happy with only mid-continent hubs at the existing ORD - plus DEN (far to the West) and at a place known only as Peotone. If so it will soon be #3 or even #4 domestically. If ORD does not expand, it will lose its historical place and become much more an O&D (origination and destination) airport.

Something to think about!