“For more than a decade, Chicago politicians have talked about a faster way to get between downtown and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Mayor Richard M. Daley pictured a high-speed rail station at Block 37, and put more than $250 million into a hole in the ground before work stopped in 2008.

Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel offered billionaire Elon Musk a chance to build a high-speed express underground service, with the promise that no public money would be spent. But no contract has been reached between Musk and the city, and new Mayor Lori Lightfoot has expressed skepticism about the project, which appears dead.

The Chicago Tribune decided to take its own look at the trip to O’Hare and determine the fastest way to the airport from downtown. We sent four reporters, with carry-on luggage, in a personal car, a ride-share, on CTA and on Metra, starting at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Prudential Building at Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street. The destination was Security Gate 3 in O’Hare’s Terminal 1, with the goal of catching an imaginary 5 p.m. United Airlines flight.”

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