Chicago's economy has long been tied to its role as the nation's transportation hub, a position threatened by the recession.
While moving goods and passengers by air, truck, rail and barge accounts for barely 3% of Chicago's economic output, the transportation and warehousing sector draws manufacturers, distributors, service providers and corporate headquarters to the center of the nation's supply chain.
Outside of Asia, no city handles more freight containers than Chicago, where all six major North American railroads intersect and move about half of all U.S. rail freight. It's an even bigger crossroads for truckers, with seven interstate highways and more than a half-billion square feet of warehouses. And between O'Hare International Airport and Midway Airport, no city moves more passengers by air.
The working assumption has been substantial long-term growth for road, rail and freight traffic here, but today's global financial crisis is throwing that future into doubt as it slams the brakes on Chicago's transportation industry, forcing companies not only to hunker down but to reinvent themselves.
"It has ruined the party," says Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation expert and professor at DePaul University. "Everyone felt confident about investing in capacity until the fuel spike and recession hit last year. There's a fear of grandiose plans."
Trucking companies will go out of business or consolidate and learn to focus on their most profitable routes and customers. Airlines, already strafed by high oil prices, are shifting from a business model oriented toward expansion to a focus on protecting the bottom line. Railroads can ride out bad times, but capacity constraints in the Chicago area limit their growth prospects here.
In recent years, Chicago's prodigious transportation assets have been outstripped by demand, leading to congestion, delays and calls for major public and private investment in the region's capacity to move people and goods.
Chicago is the "poster child" for freight snags that U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, aims to fix in this year's huge transportation bill. "It's outrageous," he says. "It takes as long to get a container train through Chicago as it does to get it from Long Beach to Chicago."
Mayor Richard M. Daley and civic leaders continue to push further expansion of O'Hare and seek $2.5 billion in federal, state and rail industry funds for a project to ease freight rail bottlenecks in Chicago, as well as a huge state borrow-and-spend plan to fix up roads and public transit. The city also has a multilevel, $15.5-billion West Loop transportation center on the long-term drawing board, centralizing connections for transit, rail and bus.
GOING FURTHER
Some argue even more investment is needed to avoid gridlock in the future. "As a region, we haven't grasped the changes needed to seize opportunities," says MarySue Barrett, president of Chicago's Metropolitan Planning Council. Reducing rail bottlenecks is vital, but it "doesn't position us for the dramatic growth we need" in the region's ability to handle freight.
Still alive are ambitious notions, such as high-speed rail and a major new airport near Peotone, not to mention lesser-known plans for thousands of acres of intermodal distribution space around the region. But some wonder if they will ever get built.
