In this day and age, I really think Maglev would be great (although perhaps a bit costly). If one could take a 15-minute trip from Milwaukee to Chicago, Milwaukee would instantly be pulled out of at least some of the economic issues that are pressing on it, and no doubt would finally get a new tallest building within at least a few years. It would also force the development of better public transport, like lightrail.

Back in the early 1990's, the governor of Minnesota proposed Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Twin Cities Maglev rail service... it's too bad his idea was apparently never taken seriously... this would just be a gigantic boon for this very underappreciated region of the United States.

People flip out about "high-speed" rail proposals. How do you think they are going to react to even more expensive ideas? I say let's work on getting the rails decent first, let them warm up to mass transit (of course the very republican ones never will, but I feel the majority will).

High speed rail needs a continuous grade separated line to reach effective speeds. As it is there is none along the Chicago Milwaukee corridor. It would be costly to acquire lands and build bridges/tunnels for such a line but I think it would be worthwhile.