Poll: WI residents support passenger rail

[CHamilton]

Time to badger Congress for Amtrak expansion

In Wisconsin, 85% of residents say they want Amtrak funding increased or maintained at current levels, according to a new survey.It's been more than 150 years since railroad fever first brought rail service to the Badger State. And while just about everything else has changed in the last century and a half, one thing hasn't: Wisconsinites still love trains and in particular are fans of our national passenger railroad, Amtrak.

A new survey of Wisconsin residents sends a clear message that expanding Amtrak service must be a part of the state's transportation future....

And those views transcend party politics and labels. Indeed, one of the only places where Amtrak is not in demand is in Congress, where some lawmakers are still peddling unpopular budgets for Amtrak that would bankrupt the railroad.

With Congress preparing to rewrite the law that governs Amtrak, now is the time for elected officials to listen to their constituents.

In Wisconsin, 85% of residents say they want Amtrak funding increased or maintained at current levels, according to the survey. Very few want to see its funding eliminated. Nearly three out of four Wisconsin residents want the option of additional service to Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago. There is overwhelming support for expanded service across all demographic groups, all of whom have no problem with the $1 billion yearly federal investment in Amtrak, and many who would like to see it expanded.

Interestingly, the strong support for Amtrak in Wisconsin comes despite the fact that residents currently have limited rail service options. Nearly 80% said they have not been a passenger on Amtrak in the past two years; no surprise here given that the carrier provides only one long-distance train and one corridor service. These views also contrast with Wisconsin's governor, who, in 2011, sent $850 million in already approved passenger rail funds back to the federal government.

The popularity of Amtrak transcends blue state/red state divisions, offering a striking example of nonpartisan pragmatism that elected leaders would do well to emulate. In fact, Amtrak's favorable/unfavorable rating was 66%-18% among Republicans and 67%-21% among conservatives. After all, providing passenger rail service is not a Democratic or Republican issue; it's a public interest issue.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Unfortunately the good folks of Wisconsin have Scott Walker as their Governor and now he's probably running for President!(If he's reelected as Gov????)

 

[neroden]

This means that a large number of Amtrak supporters in Michigan voted for that rail-hating ass Scott Walker. Hopefully they will vote for his opponent in the upcoming election. Unfortunately I'm not entirely optimistic. Some voters really do vote for candidates who oppose everything the voter believes in; they get misled by slick ad campaigns.

 

[cirdan]

This means that a large number of Amtrak supporters in Michigan voted for that rail-hating ass Scott Walker. Hopefully they will vote for his opponent in the upcoming election. Unfortunately I'm not entirely optimistic. Some voters really do vote for candidates who oppose everything the voter believes in; they get misled by slick ad campaigns.

Plus elections are rarely one topic affairs.

A lot of people may believe in Amtrak but see other issues as more pressing.

 

[me_little_me]

This means that a large number of Amtrak supporters in Michigan voted for that rail-hating ass Scott Walker. Hopefully they will vote for his opponent in the upcoming election. Unfortunately I'm not entirely optimistic. Some voters really do vote for candidates who oppose everything the voter believes in; they get misled by slick ad campaigns.

Plus elections are rarely one topic affairs.

A lot of people may believe in Amtrak but see other issues as more pressing.

I agree. Amtrak is one small part of any state's concerns and issues. I have no idea what the governor's stand is on other issues (and don't care if he doesn't run for national office or move to my state) but if the locals voted for him over his opponent, there had to be something they preferred in him. Unfortunately, candidates that support Amtrak may also be candidates one would reject for far more important reasons. And it is intelligent to base one's decisions on the important issues.

To claim that voters based their decisions on "slick campaigns" because they voted for someone one doesn't like is a claim often used by fringe groups on both sides who consider the other side "evil" rather than simply disagreeing with them.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I got it! We are going to catch a lot of badgers. Like hundreds of them. And then we are going to put them in a cage and take them to the Capitol. And if Congress doesn't do a better job funding them we are going to release these badger weasels upon these political weasels.

 

[WICT106]

This means that a large number of Amtrak supporters in Michigan voted for that rail-hating ass Scott Walker. Hopefully they will vote for his opponent in the upcoming election. Unfortunately I'm not entirely optimistic. Some voters really do vote for candidates who oppose everything the voter believes in; they get misled by slick ad campaigns.

Don't you mean, "Wisconsin" ? Walker isn't the governor of MI.

 

[Guest]

Was this poll sponsored by a union?

 

[Ryan]

Do you have a problem with the survey methodology, or at you just spouting anonymous, bs, ad-homs?

 

[neroden]

This means that a large number of Amtrak supporters in Michigan voted for that rail-hating ass Scott Walker. Hopefully they will vote for his opponent in the upcoming election. Unfortunately I'm not entirely optimistic. Some voters really do vote for candidates who oppose everything the voter believes in; they get misled by slick ad campaigns.

Don't you mean, "Wisconsin" ? Walker isn't the governor of MI.

Yes, I mean Wisconsin. :blush: Slip of the tongue.
Honestly, this isn't the only issue where a fairly sizeable number of Walker voters appear to have voted against their interests with regard to Walker; it's one of many. "Kill the train" was also one of Walker's *signature campaign issues*. It was one of the few ones where he was actually honest about what he planned to do -- though of course he lied about the financial effects of his "kill the train" plan, which has actually cost Wisconsin more money than it would have to operate the train for 10 years.

Walker wasn't even honest when he said he was going to attack all the rich union contracts (upon taking office, he promptly exempted the police unions, which are among the fattest of the fatcat unions). About several of the other issues, he just lied, like his claim that he would bring jobs to the state, which he didn't do. For his reelection campaign, he's now simply lying outright about how many jobs the state has added. Then there's his support for privatizing public hunting land for paid, canned hunts, which he very much hid until after he took office.

Walker only won by a small margin -- about 52%. Just enough people were misled by a slick ad campaign with an enormous amount of money behind it. There's really no getting around it.

Walker is an awful person. He's also been repeatedly violating a number of the guarantees in the state Constitution, starting with the right of public access to the state Capitol.