n Amsterdam, fliers who arrive at Schiphol Airport can board an express train that will whisk them downtown in 20 minutes or so. The story is the same in London and Paris and Hong Kong and even Moscow, for heaven’s sake: reliable, affordable, fast transport to the city center.

In Chicago, we have the $300-million-and-counting “superstation” under Block 37. Until someone wheels in the tons of additional loot needed to finish it and the high-speed rail link to O’Hare International Airport it’s supposed to anchor, the facility will remain empty — a dank, dark and half-completed mausoleum, useless to anyone except perhaps Hollywood for a bat cave set, as Crain’s editorial writer suggested.