The state DOT and other advocates did a horrible job of selling this to the public. They really needed to correct a lot of the misinformation out there.
For example, a quick google search turned up these two sites.
http://www.wsau.com/blogs/post/cconley/2010/nov/09/opinion-can-he-derail-train/
http://www.wisn.com/news/25527333/detail.html
Now, I'm not saying that either deserves credibility, but what is noted on these pages is what I have also heard or read many places regarding this topic. People think that riding the train will be expensive.
One really has to dig through tons of data to even get any kind of information on the actual fares. The best I could find, after several minutes of web searching, was this page:
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/recovery/docs/rail-grant-13.pdf
On page 16 of the PDF, they mention revenue per passenger-mile ranging between $0.20 and $0.25. Extrapolating that along the roughly 70-mile route (I forget the exact length) gives you a one-way fare of approximately $14-18.
Yet, one blogger says the cost will be $30-$100! I can't imagine anyone in their right mind would seriously propose a $100 fare for such a short trip. If they did, then I guess it's no wonder the project failed to garner much public support.
Even if the $30 fare is a round-trip number, and the $100 figure is completely fabricated, it should have been the DOT's responsibility to publish, in easy-to-read format, numbers correcting these popular misconceptions (and, no, searching through dozens of charts on several PDFs, some of which were 200+ pages long, does not constitute correcting misconceptions). I know these misconceptions exist, not because of a couple of web pages that I happened to find while doing a random web search, but also by reading comments following many news articles on the project, and also from a little bit of word-of-mouth that I've heard others say.
They also needed to broadcast the ridership estimates more, to counter the "nobody will ride it" claims that were all over the place. "Nobody will ride it" is the state motto in Wisconsin (you hear it all the time when rail is mentioned, both local and intercity).
Secondly, some of the proposed schedules were absolutely laughable. Under one scenario, those that developed the timetable would have the trains turning in Madison in NINE minutes. You can barely get a trainload of people off in that amount of time, let alone get a new set of passengers boarded and run the necessary brake tests and whatnot. In the words of a former boss of mine, where they nucking futs?
Lastly, in my opinion (and that of many others that I know who work in the industry), the choice of Talgo was one of the dumbest moves they made. They will be operating orphaned equipment while everyone else goes with the standard intercity equipment. The Talgos require a separate maintenance facility, which will result in higher costs. They are not interchangeable with anything else. For a segregated operation, it wouldn't really matter that much. But, considering that at one end of the route you have a large passenger rail terminal with trains from all over, equipment interchangeability would be very useful.
The main benefit of the Talgo equipment is its tilt technology, allowing higher speeds on curves. My 12-inch ruler has more curves than the route between Chicago and Milwaukee. The only place I could possibly think where a tilt train would do you any good on that route is a small stretch north of Milwaukee Airport where the speed currently drops from 79 all the way down to 70.
Between Milwaukee and Madison, there are a few more curves, but still, I doubt there's enough to make it worth it to spend tons of money on fixed consist trains that will have no more capacity than the current fleet (and, thus, no possibility for capacity expansion).
End of rant for now.
