From an editorial in The Tomah Journal:
Let’s assume you live in Tomah and want to visit Atlanta. You either drive to the La Crosse airport, catch a flight to Minneapolis before taking another flight to Atlanta, or you can drive three hours to the Minneapolis airport and take the direct flight.
But there’s another possibility — replace the La Crosse-Minneapolis flight or long car trip with light rail from Tomah to Minneapolis.
Officials from the Twin Cities are touting light rail between Minneapolis and Chicago, and they have a powerful ally in President-elect Barack Obama, who appears ready to make high-speed rail part of his economic stimulus program. It’s an investment that’s long overdue, and it has potential to unsnarl an air passenger system that’s as reliable as electricity in Iraq. Air travelers are all too familiar with a web of connecting flights that often don’t run on time and leave passengers spending more time in airport lounges than moving through the air.