Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad

The Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad (CNY) was a proposed high-speed electric air-line railroad between Chicago and New York City. At roughly 750 miles (1,210 km) it would have been over 150 miles (240 km) shorter than the two primary steam railroads on that route, the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. The promoters' vision proved wildly optimistic, and in the end only a short interurban route in the vicinity of Gary, Indiana, was built and operated. It was the most ambitious of several such proposals, all of which ended in failure.

The Air Line was not the first proposed high-speed electric railway. In 1893 Dr. Wellington Adams promoted a 252-mile (406 km) Chicago–St. Louis route with a maximum operating speed of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). Adams believed the new railroad could be built in a year for $5.5 million. Trade publications ridiculed the proposal and it went nowhere.

The proposed Air Line, first announced in 1906, was far more ambitious than that proposal. The proposed physical characteristics of the route were impressive and far ahead of contemporary practice: grades not exceeding 1%, no grade crossings, and straight route which would be 150 miles (240 km) shorter than other routes. Trains would run at 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) and complete the journey between Chicago and New York in 10 hours. At the time the two fastest trains between New York and Chicago, the New York Central Railroad's 20th Century Limited and the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pennsylvania Special (forerunner of the more famous Broadway Limited), each required twenty hours to make the journey.

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