Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.
The Chicago-Windroit-Toronto Corridor will be a maglev rail line jointly operated by Amtrak and VIA Rail.
This maglev rail connection will be a reality by the year 2050. Essentially, it will link up all the important towns and cities of the "Great Lakes Megalopolis" into a single route. It will rely on magnetic levitation to run instead of fossil fuels; making rail travel significantly cleaner and carbon neutral. Due to the Ebola outbreak of 2015 along with subsequent outbreaks of swine flu and SARS, unprecendented innovations in labor-saving technology were introduced. The capitalist system would bring its inevitable end due to an "economic plague which started sometime in the year 2037." Many nearby hamlets were abandoned as people chose to live more urban lives to required less fuel usage. Wages shot up and laborers could move to new localities in response to wage offers.
Consequences[]
The traditional "Windsor-Quebec City corridor" will become truncated to become the "Toronto-Quebec City Corridor" to be operated solely by VIA Rail until light rail is finally established on that route in the year 2060. After the Great Flood of 2024, most of Southern Quebec becomes a rural swamp until technological advances restore that region to its former glory in the 23rd century. All cities of Canadamerica with a population of 15000 or greater will be linked up to the C-W-T Corridor (as it will be colliqually called). Notable connections will include a stop in Simcoe (Norfolk County), Ontario and a stop at Tillsonburg, Ontario as a part of their expanding economies.
By the end of the 21st century, people from Chicago and Toronto will be able to travel cheaply to Windroit and become savvy tourists.
Norfolk County will welcome the rail links as it will revitalize their stagnant and/or dying industries and it will provide a method for Norfolk to establish its reign as the "horicultural center of Ontario." (formerly the Ontario tobacco belt). The railroad station in Simcoe will be named after a notable resident (either Dennis Travale or Peter Black). By the year 2053, all existing rail links in the Great Lakes region all link up into the C-W-T corridor as a way for people to access more cities with more trains.
Any secondary links needed to gather other towns and cities into the Corridor will be a part of the Corridor and not a separate route. Therefore, anybody who lives in a town of 15000 people or greater will be able to access the major cities of Toronto, Windroit, and Chicago with only one form of transportation to deal with. Never again would a small town person need to travel to a larger town by automobile just to access the mass transportation that they need in order to access metropolitian regions.
Combined with the fact autism will be cured using nanobots, people who used to be autistic will find an enhanced level of independence with the enhanced mass transit system and become loyal to the government.