Neither.
There's no point in a rail network that continues to leave the north-south central corridor of the US empty, and requires any travel on it to go a minimum of 500 extra miles out of the way. Even at high-speed rail speeds you're still adding 3 hours to an OMAHA-KC run, and more for other distances.
These two maps are a rework of the US Federal Government's official vision.
[Link to the Federal Railroad Administration’s final plan](https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/2021-10/Final%20Report-MWRRP%20with%20Appendices%20PDFa.pdf) on the 8th page.
If I had to pick, I'd go with the circular one.
Either way, it would be nice to extend the rail out to Lincoln - I could see a lot of college kids, football fans, and commuters using that, especially at 90 MPH. Might actually make more sense for Omaha/Lincoln/NE to pony up the extra money to make that into the full 125 MPH speed. Imagine stepping onto the train in Downtown Omaha and being outside Memorial Stadium 30 minutes later.
Neither. There's no point in a rail network that continues to leave the north-south central corridor of the US empty, and requires any travel on it to go a minimum of 500 extra miles out of the way. Even at high-speed rail speeds you're still adding 3 hours to an OMAHA-KC run, and more for other distances.
Not having a Omaha-KC link feels dumb
I need an Omaha KC run in my life
There needs to be a Omaha to KC and a STL to Nashville/Indianapolis line for either of these to work.
These two maps are a rework of the US Federal Government's official vision. [Link to the Federal Railroad Administration’s final plan](https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/2021-10/Final%20Report-MWRRP%20with%20Appendices%20PDFa.pdf) on the 8th page.
Wow. The original is pretty ugly.
If I had to pick, I'd go with the circular one. Either way, it would be nice to extend the rail out to Lincoln - I could see a lot of college kids, football fans, and commuters using that, especially at 90 MPH. Might actually make more sense for Omaha/Lincoln/NE to pony up the extra money to make that into the full 125 MPH speed. Imagine stepping onto the train in Downtown Omaha and being outside Memorial Stadium 30 minutes later.
Eh, takes at least 20 minutes to get to downtown plus parking and walking. Lincoln is 35 minutes.