Wisconsin High Speed Rail Stopped

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rtabern

Conductor
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
1,606
Location
Northwest Wisconsin
Milwaukee TV station, WITI-TV, FOX 6 just broke in programming with a special report a few minutes ago to announce that the high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison has been haulted.

www.fox6now.com/news/witi-110410-high-speed-rail-shut-down,0,3275891.story

I hope everyone is happy now! Shame on Wisconsin voters!! We needed this important link between the state's 2 largest cities. I hope everyone will be happy now with the Metra line continuing to end in Kenosha... no high speed rail... trips on the Hiawatha Horizon equipment and its dirty windows... and no early morning or late night service to Chicago... and no service to Madison. :(

I am just disgusted!
 
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Milwaukee TV station, WITI-TV, FOX 6 just broke in programming with a special report a few minutes ago to announce that the high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison has been haulted.

www.fox6now.com/news/witi-110410-high-speed-rail-shut-down,0,3275891.story

I hope everyone is happy now! Shame on Wisconsin voters!! We needed this important link between the state's 2 largest cities. I hope everyone will be happy now with the Metra line continuing to end in Kenosha... no high speed rail... trips on the Hiawatha Horizon equipment and its dirty windows... and no early morning or late night service to Chicago... and no service to Madison. :(

I am just disgusted!

Its sad, but after the outcome of Tuesday's election are you surprised? People went to the polls and have reverted us back to the Bush/Cheney era. So now poor Obama will never be able to clean up the catastrophe (sp) that Bush left behind because we are going back to that disaster. I am sorry it turned out that way, and high speed rail came to a stop before it even left the station. Sadly you can't expect much from those who vote red and not blue. The only people they care about is themselves, they can't see the bigger picture and realize the benefits of high speed rail.

Why because they don't take the train so why should they have to pay for it. Funny thing is I have no kids but I still have to pay taxes that help the local schools.

Any idea of what the status is for high speed in IL from CHI to STL?
 
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Milwaukee TV station, WITI-TV, FOX 6 just broke in programming with a special report a few minutes ago to announce that the high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison has been haulted.

www.fox6now.com/news/witi-110410-high-speed-rail-shut-down,0,3275891.story

I hope everyone is happy now! Shame on Wisconsin voters!! We needed this important link between the state's 2 largest cities. I hope everyone will be happy now with the Metra line continuing to end in Kenosha... no high speed rail... trips on the Hiawatha Horizon equipment and its dirty windows... and no early morning or late night service to Chicago... and no service to Madison. :(

I am just disgusted!
Sick is an understatement. Hey! That's a GREAT START to creating jobs, Governor Ass-Hat!
 
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I'm not sure what's going on, but that story makes no sense and it is very short on details. I think that it's time to just take a deep breath and see what happens. It seems very odd in light of this past weekend's events that they would suddenly do this, at least without some court ordering the shut down, which is something that I'm not even sure if the courts really have any say.

As for Illinois, that work is well under way and they aren't as crazy down there to throw away Federal monies for a viable project and a train that already moves half a million people annually at its current speed.
 
Milwaukee TV station, WITI-TV, FOX 6 just broke in programming with a special report a few minutes ago to announce that the high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison has been haulted.
This TV station really felt that this was so major that it could not wait until their regular news programming? :help:
 
I'm not sure what's going on, but that story makes no sense and it is very short on details. I think that it's time to just take a deep breath and see what happens. It seems very odd in light of this past weekend's events that they would suddenly do this, at least without some court ordering the shut down, which is something that I'm not even sure if the courts really have any say.

As for Illinois, that work is well under way and they aren't as crazy down there to throw away Federal monies for a viable project and a train that already moves half a million people annually at its current speed.
Based on the election results and the desire of the incoming administration to cancel the project, the Wisconsin DOT has issued a stop-work order for all on-going work on the rail line, and will not bid or let any additional work for the Milwaukee to Madison rail project. This will limit the finacial exposure of the state for refund to the Federal DOT of HSR grant funds spent. Basically, it appears present Governor Jim Doyle is not going to press ahead with the project given that the only outcome would be additional cost to state taxpayers.
 
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Any idea of what the status is for high speed in IL from CHI to STL?
Still full speed ahead for that project. It appears that IL Gov Quinn has be re-elected (well, elected to a full term as governor), meaning there is not likely to be any major change in state support for rail in Illinois.
 
Its sad, but after the outcome of Tuesday's election are you surprised? People went to the polls and have reverted us back to the Bush/Cheney era. So now poor Obama will never be able to clean up the catastrophe (sp) that Bush left behind because we are going back to that disaster. I am sorry it turned out that way, and high speed rail came to a stop before it even left the station. Sadly you can't expect much from those who vote red and not blue. The only people they care about is themselves, they can't see the bigger picture and realize the benefits of high speed rail.
Unless I'm wrong, newly elected people don't take office for a bit so one has to put the blame on the governor personally for this decision.
 
What is the expected load factor on a Milwaukee-Madison line? If I recall my Milwaukee Road history, passenger trains that ran that route just prior to Amtrak had only 1 or 2 cars.
 
What is the expected load factor on a Milwaukee-Madison line? If I recall my Milwaukee Road history, passenger trains that ran that route just prior to Amtrak had only 1 or 2 cars.
If the service had managed to get to the 110 mph max speeds with good travel times to Chicago, it would likely have had pretty good ridership numbers. What Minnesota does about these developments because Madison to Milwaukee to Chicago was supposed to be the first phase of a corridor extending to Minneapolis? I guess do the engineering studies and wait for a new Governor in Wisconsin.

If the $810 million for the Milwaukee to Madison corridor gets returned, then I would hope Secretary LaHood puts the funds towards finishing the improvements for the Chicago-St Louis, Chicago-Detroit, and Chicago-Milwaukee corridors and CREATE projects that directly benefit intercity rail. I think I read that Gov elect Walker said he was not opposed to improving the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor, much of which is in Illinois anyway. Used what funding can be found the next 2-3 fiscal years to focus on getting the Chicago hub bottlenecks fixed, and getting the travel times in those 3 corridors and service frequencies to those called for in the MidWest Regional Rail System plan. Also get the Iowa City service going and improve the St Louis-Kansas City corridor.

If Ohio, Indiana (except for the route running through the state to Michigan), and Wisconsin are not going to participate, spend the funds on the states and cities that will. Then if/when the political climate changes in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, the bulk of the work will have been done on the 3 main corridors I listed, so the available funding can be directed to get started on connecting the corridors in the holdout states to an improved Chicago hub.
 
I thought the governor just a few days ago signed a contract with the government that bound the state to spend the money...what happened to that?

Politics makes me confused and depressed.
 
My read on this was political posturing. Suspend it for a study on the impact of shutting it down and getting the pro-rail group some press time, hopefully forcing the hand of the incoming governor.
 
Unless I'm wrong, newly elected people don't take office for a bit so one has to put the blame on the governor personally for this decision.
Corzine's insistence on racing a half baked, poorly conceived project that threw out all the babies in it in order to preserve the precious bath water cost our state a fortune in contract withdrawals and federal paybacks when Christie (for both the right and wrong reasons) cancelled it. I would say that Doyle is showing an impressive amount of self-hurting responsibility in attempting to save his state's citizens the cost of paying for him stubbornly continuing something he knows will be pulled out at the roots.
 
I heard from a source - that if Wisconsin turns dow the federal matching rail dollars, that this may free up some more Federal Rail money, and possibly open the door for Richmond to Raleigh (the old Seaboard main line), which was abandoned. They call it the "S" line. At the moment, CSX (and Amtrak) use the "A" line (former Atlantic Coast Line - main line). But the S line would reduce a lot of miles, perhaps 70 or more miles, and also allow for rather fast speeds (79 mph, or maybe faster) between Richmond and Raleigh.
 
Does anyone know what effect this has on the planned Talgo factory in Wisconsin? 'Cause this line was supposed to be buying 60% of its initial production, and the whole point of the factory being in Wisconsin was so Talgo could sell the trainsets for the Hiawathas...not sure if its worth building a new factory for three trainsets.
 
Does anyone know what effect this has on the planned Talgo factory in Wisconsin? 'Cause this line was supposed to be buying 60% of its initial production, and the whole point of the factory being in Wisconsin was so Talgo could sell the trainsets for the Hiawathas...not sure if its worth building a new factory for three trainsets.
Talgo will still build the 2 trainsets for the Hiawatha service and the 2 trainsets for Oregon, but they may shut down after that. They where hoping to get the contract to build the trainsets for the Madison line. Now that looks unlikely.
 
Theoretically, other states could still buy Talgos if I understand correctly. However, since Amtrak has these standardized equipment guidelines, it probably would not happen that way.

Of course I am hoping for more Talgos rather than fewer.
 
Unless I'm wrong, newly elected people don't take office for a bit so one has to put the blame on the governor personally for this decision.
What exactly would you have him do to avoid your blame?

Exactly, it's being stopped because those who won on Tuesday don't want it.
Not at all. In fact the opposite would be true. Outgoing administrations generally try to push through things they want to get done before the new administration comes in. Generally they don't kill things because those who won don't want it.
 
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