Wooo! That was the sound Gov. Pat Quinn made chugging down the track recently on a test run of a higher -- not high -- speed train.

Quinn and his fellow politicians on the trip were ecstatic when the train hit 111 mph on a 15-mile stretch of track.

But taxpayers may not be as thrilled when the bill comes due: an estimated $4 billion to shave an hour off the 5 1/2-hour journey from St. Louis to Chicago.

Republican governors in Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio opted out of high-speed rail. They figured that with cost overruns and limited benefits to riders, it wasn't worth the price.

Quinn didn't see it that way; their opting out meant more federal dollars for him. Wooo!