Today the federal government announced billions of dollars in stimulus funds for high speed rail.  Over a billion dollars will go to upgrade the St. Louis to Chicago route to 110 mph. Missouri is also getting $31 million to upgrade the KC-St. Louis route to continue recent work to reduce travel times and increase reliability. That route needs a lot of work to get up to real high speed rail, so for now the state is working on projects to get the line ready for high speed rail in the future.

Kansas is also getting some money to plan for a new passenger rail service from Kansas City to Wichita, Oklahoma City, and Fort Worth, TX.

KC Light Rail has more details about today’s announcements.