DECATUR - A high-speed rail advocacy group spoke before a gathering of local officials Tuesday to unveil the results of a study that said an $11.5 billion, 220-mph rail corridor linking Chicago to St. Louis, with a stop in Decatur, would be viable.

Decatur Mayor Michael McElroy, City Manager Ryan McCrady and representatives from Macon and Champaign counties were in attendance at the Decatur Civic Center to hear about the findings of the study funded by the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.

Rick Harnish, the association's executive director, said a realistic timeframe on such a train remains uncertain.

"Sometimes, you don't want to ask what the realistic answer is," Harnish said. "Sometimes, you want to be bold and audacious. If we want to be realistic about this, it's going to take decades."

McCrady said there would be great economic benefit to having a commuter rail linking Decatur to Chicago and the rest of the region.

"It would benefit some of our major employers, who need to access larger metropolitan areas," McCrady said. "It goes a long way to making Decatur a first-class community."

McCrady said the city will be making efforts to mobilize residents to contact their officials in support of bringing passenger rail to Decatur.

Millikin University President Doug Zemke spoke about the implications of commuter rail for his school, which has a significant number of students from the northern part of the state.

"About 40 percent of the students who attend Millikin come from north of I-80," Zemke said. "For us, it opens up the opportunity for students who are here to go back and forth. We also think it's a much safer thing. We'd much rather have our students on rail than driving automobiles."

A spokesman for the rail association said the hypothetical route in the study - which would link Chicago to Champaign, cut west through Decatur to Springfield and then head south into St. Louis - is desirable because the topography is flat with no major rivers, and the right of way owned by the railroad companies would be able to provide for tracks dedicated solely to passenger rail, with no delays due to freight.

Former city Councilwoman Betsy Stockard, who heads the Decatur Amtrak Connection group, attended the news conference, along with city council members Adam Brown and Larry Foster.

Though federal and state government have allocated funding for high-speed rail in Illinois, there are no plans yet in store for the 220-mph track described in the association's study. The $11.5 billion figure cited in the study would not include the cost of new train stations.

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