Myth vs. Fact

Fact: Fifteen minutes is the sponsors’ figure for the train itself, terminal to terminal. It does not include getting to the platform at O’Hare, the wait for a train, or getting from the Old Post Office to wherever you are going. By the sponsors’ own schedule — a train every 15 minutes — the average wait is seven and a half minutes and the longest is fifteen. ¹⁰ Just miss a train and the train leg alone is 30.

Fact: The O’Hare Flyer is a front for the Great Western Railroad. It would take the company 58 years to earn back their investment through the O’Hare Flyer alone.¹ The Great Western Railroad will run freight every night from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. and this is how the company will profit. According to CEO Dave Lundy on September 3, 2026: “Great Western Railroad will be delivering that overnight when the service is not operating.”

“It’s like three freight cars of flour to a bakery, two freight cars of corn syrup... literally, like you’re talking, hey, you got to deliver three cars of flour, two cars of corn syrup. This is not what I would call heavy freight use,” Lundy said on September 3, 2026.

Fact: The Great Western Railroad will be carrying heavy freight. For flour, each train car holds the equivalent of four semi-trucks. Each train car will weigh at least 200,000 pounds.⁴

Fact: The sponsors said on Oct. 1 they would be “putting in brand new tracks that would run from the downtown all the way up to the airport.” ¹¹ Through River Forest the track would be raised on a 15-foot earth berm topped with a 4½-foot sound wall and an 8-foot fence — 27½ feet from the ground — through residential blocks. ¹⁰ Through Thatcher Woods and likely elsewhere, a second track would be added. At O’Hare, a flyover roughly 90 feet high would carry the line over the taxiways to Terminal 2. ¹²

Fact: The train speeds through 11 communities past thousands of residences as well as schools, parks, a senior residence, and a hospital. It runs at grade level throughout Forest Park, Melrose Park, River Grove, Franklin Park, and Schiller Park.⁵

Fact: The trains will race through five suburban communities at top speed at grade level. Elsewhere in the U.S., such trains have proven deadly. The Brightline train on the coast of Florida “kills someone every 13 days of service, on average,” according to a January 2026 investigation in The Miami Herald.

Fact: The sponsors say they will eliminate the crossings in River Forest. North of River Forest, four crossings — 1st Avenue and 5th Avenue in Melrose Park, George Street, and Belmont in Franklin Park — stay at street level unless the Illinois Commerce Commission orders otherwise; the sponsors say they “would like” that and would install gates if it doesn’t happen in time. ¹⁰ Federal rules require train horns at street-level crossings. At Chestnut Street the sponsors intend to ask that the crossing be closed. ¹⁰

Fact: No stop is proposed anywhere in Chicago between the Old Post Office and O’Hare. The sponsors say they are “actively considering” one stop, in suburban Forest Park. ¹¹ The eleven communities and the forest preserve along the route get the construction, the crossings and, on parts of the line, overnight freight; they get no station. Fares have not been set. A Chicago Tribune editorial projected $25–$35 a ride; the sponsors have said “about $35,” comparing it to London’s Heathrow Express. The Blue Line is $2.50–$5. ^{9 11}

Fact: No studies have been done to determine whether it’s even possible to create a vibration-free electric train. According to Lundy on September 3, 2026: “Vibration analysis studies have not been done.”

Fact: No studies have been done to determine whether it’s even possible to create a quiet train.⁶

Fact: No environmental studies have been done to date.⁷

Fact: No environmental, noise, vibration, traffic or public-health study has been published. On Oct. 1 the sponsors’ representatives said no wildlife, bird, bat, noise or light study had been done for Thatcher Woods and none was yet committed. ¹¹ The ridership study the sponsors cite has not been released. ⁹

Fact: The corporation intends to apply for Federal funding through the Department of Transportation and will use taxpayer money for their private, for-profit venture.² Other rail lines, like the Brightline in Florida, have used taxpayer money to pay for safety upgrades that should have been installed from the start.³

Fact: The sponsors say one private funding round is closed and a second is under way. They have not said who their investors are, how much they have raised toward a project they put at $2.25 billion, or what return they are promising; asked about the return, they said, “we will not answer that question.” ⁸ They have also said they expect to refinance with a federal loan once the line is built — which is public credit, not private money. ¹⁰

Fact: The sponsors describe the project as private. They have also said they intend to apply for a federal railroad loan; that they plan to grade-separate Madison Street “with IDOT,” the state transportation department; that four crossings in Melrose Park and Franklin Park stay in the street unless the Illinois Commerce Commission orders them separated; and that they expect “an agreement of some type with the city” of Chicago and “some city council process.” ^{10 12} Every one of those is public money, public land or public approval.

Fact: Florida’s Brightline, promoted as “not publicly funded at all,” has taken $486 million in public money, ¹⁶ and in 2026 restructured its debt. ¹⁷ Its trains have been involved in 196 deaths, most at street-level crossings. ¹⁶

Fact: One of the three railroads, CSX, has signed a letter of intent. Union Pacific and Canadian National have agreed to nothing; the Village of River Forest confirmed this with CN directly. ¹³ The sponsors said on Oct. 1 that the agreements would be held by Great Western Railroad, a freight company they own, and described CN as “a reasonable possibility.” ¹¹

Fact: Nothing has been filed. There is no Surface Transportation Board docket, no Illinois Commerce Commission petition, no FAA airport layout plan submission, no environmental review and no agreement with the City of Chicago. By the sponsors’ own account on Oct. 2, the project still needs the FRA, the STB, the FAA, the City’s transportation and aviation departments, a City agreement and “some city council process.” ¹² Melrose Park, the Village of River Forest, the West Central Municipal Conference (37 municipalities) and Cook County Commissioner Maggie Trevor are on record against it or calling it premature. ^{13 14}

Fact: Chicago has two trains to O’Hare now: the Blue Line, 24 hours a day, 40–45 minutes to the Loop, $5; and Metra’s North Central Service. Metra’s draft plan would run trains to O’Hare every 30 minutes, all day, from Union Station, for about $100 million to build. The federal loan program the sponsors are counting on is open to Metra and the CTA today. ¹⁵