by jboullion | Jul 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Dustin Kass of the Winona (MN) Daily News:
WINONA, Minn. – Funding for a high-speed rail line in Minnesota is in jeopardy after federal delays have put the project months behind schedule.
A route for high-speed rail service between Madison and the Twin Cities likely will not be selected until this winter, nearly half a year after originally estimated, Minnesota Department of Transportation officials say. The delay could torpedo the chances of the project receiving federal funding – and of cities such as La Crosse or Winona gaining the economic boost the service would bring.
“The longer we delay, in my view, the less chance you get any money,” Winona Mayor Jerry Miller said.
MnDOT received a $600,000 federal planning grant in January to cover half the cost of a preliminary study examining possible routes between Madison and the Twin Cities. But officials have not even started the study because they are waiting on Federal Railroad Administration officials to review the results of a separate Midwest regional study completed in 2004, said Dan Krom, director of the MnDOT office of Passenger Rail.
Officials are considering lines that would run through Eau Claire or La Crosse, with the second route passing through either Winona or Rochester, Minn. Winona leaders have banded with representatives from municipalities along the Mississippi River to form the Minnesota High-Speed Rail Commission and advocate for the line to follow an existing train route along the river. Miller is the commission’s chairman.
Krom attributed the FRA delays to the burden the agency faces as it administers $8 billion in high-speed rail projects awarded in January. FRA officials did not respond to a call for comment on this story.
The Madison-to-Twin Cities study now will likely start in September, Krom said, with a
preferred route indicated “by the end of they year.” The full study isn’t expected to be finished until September 2011.
by jboullion | Jul 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Sandler of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
But expansion of I-94 finds increased support
Support for new rail transit systems has dipped below 50% in the Milwaukee area, while I-94 expansion receives stronger backing but still falls just short of a majority, according to a recent poll.
At the same time, The People Speak Poll found majority support throughout the four-county area for a new half-cent sales tax in Milwaukee County only to fund the county’s transit system, despite skepticism about empowering a regional transit authority to levy a broader sales tax.
The Public Policy Forum’s People Speak Poll is a tracking poll, designed to follow changes in public opinion on key local issues over time. The latest telephone poll of 386 residents in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties focused on transportation issues and was the third such poll in a year to ask about plans for high-speed trains, commuter rail and streetcars.
Last fall, 57% backed plans for high-speed trains linking Milwaukee to Madison and Chicago. Narrower majorities supported plans for commuter trains from Milwaukee to Kenosha and Racine and modern streetcars in downtown Milwaukee. Those results didn’t change much in the spring.
But when the latest poll was conducted June 1-4, support had dropped to 41% for high-speed rail and 42% each for downtown streetcars and commuter rail, the Public Policy Forum reported.
By contrast, a new question about adding lanes to I-94 between Milwaukee and Waukesha drew 49% in favor to 39% opposed, with the rest voicing no opinion.
Those results reflect inroads by vocal rail transit opponents, as well as public concern about the economy and strained government budgets, Public Policy Forum President Rob Henken said.
by jboullion | Jun 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Ilissa Gilmore in the Sheboygan Press:
ASHWAUBENON — An advocacy group said Wednesday that the high-speed rail system that will connect several Midwest cities will benefit the environment and provide more than 9,000 jobs in Wisconsin.
Members of the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group student chapters came to the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon to promote the $823 million project that will connect Green Bay, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, among other cities.
WISPIRG — which works on economic, environmental, and social concerns — is conducting its second annual tour for the system. The group also has visited Eau Claire, La Crosse and Madison and will hit Oshkosh, Milwaukee and Racine.
States need to invest in railways instead of more roads and highways, said WISPIRG student leader Sarah Seibold.
“The Midwest is behind the East Coast and Europe and Asia in railway travel,” said Patricia Terry, a science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. “Rails are needed to maintain our economic competitiveness.”
An expanded rail system in Wisconsin would produce 9,000 new, permanent jobs, and it would reduce dependency on oil because railroads are 23 percent more fuel efficient than airplanes and 40 percent more efficient than single-passenger cars, Seibold said.
The rail system will use diesel gas before eventually moving to electricity, she said, but it would still be more efficient than standard modes of transportation. With oil dependency and gas prices on the rise, rail travel is a favorable alternative, Terry said.
by jboullion | Jun 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Ilissa Gilmore in the Sheboygan Press:
ASHWAUBENON — An advocacy group said Wednesday that the high-speed rail system that will connect several Midwest cities will benefit the environment and provide more than 9,000 jobs in Wisconsin.
Members of the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group student chapters came to the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon to promote the $823 million project that will connect Green Bay, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, among other cities.
WISPIRG — which works on economic, environmental, and social concerns — is conducting its second annual tour for the system. The group also has visited Eau Claire, La Crosse and Madison and will hit Oshkosh, Milwaukee and Racine.
States need to invest in railways instead of more roads and highways, said WISPIRG student leader Sarah Seibold.
“The Midwest is behind the East Coast and Europe and Asia in railway travel,” said Patricia Terry, a science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. “Rails are needed to maintain our economic competitiveness.”
An expanded rail system in Wisconsin would produce 9,000 new, permanent jobs, and it would reduce dependency on oil because railroads are 23 percent more fuel efficient than airplanes and 40 percent more efficient than single-passenger cars, Seibold said.
The rail system will use diesel gas before eventually moving to electricity, she said, but it would still be more efficient than standard modes of transportation. With oil dependency and gas prices on the rise, rail travel is a favorable alternative, Terry said.
by jboullion | Jun 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
Three stalled plans for Wisconsin train travel get reanalyzed in the election year
From an article by Larry Sandler in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Railroads and politics have one thing in common: They’re all about the timing.
Trains run by schedules. Politicians wait for the right moment to make their moves.
And timing is everything for rail transportation in southern Wisconsin, where political circumstances have brought three different rail transit plans to the forefront simultaneously – only to thrust them into an election-year controversy where some plans may not survive.
After years of study and debate, the state has landed an $810 million federal grant to build a high-speed train line from Milwaukee to Madison. At the same time, Milwaukee-area authorities are seeking federal permission to start preliminary engineering on a $283.5 million commuter rail line from Milwaukee to Kenosha and a $95.8 million modern streetcar line in downtown Milwaukee, two other long-discussed ideas.
Officially, the three plans are not related, except that all three systems would converge at Milwaukee’s downtown Amtrak-Greyhound station, where the streetcar could carry Amtrak or KRM Commuter Link passengers “the last mile” to their destinations, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said. Supporters also tout all three as ways to stimulate economic development and improve mobility.
Politically, all three are linked in the minds of their opponents, as symbols of unnecessary taxation and skewed transportation spending priorities, say Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and state Rep. Robin Vos (R-Racine). Walker, Vos and their allies oppose new sales taxes – which are not currently proposed for any of the rail lines – and want transportation dollars spent on roads and buses.
Although the high-speed rail planning started under former Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, a longtime passenger train booster, the train debate in recent years has turned partisan, pitting Democratic rail backers against GOP critics. Now the rail projects have emerged as an issue in the fall governor’s race – in which Barrett is the likely Democratic nominee and Walker is facing former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann for the GOP nod.
Walker has taken the hardest line against all three projects, vowing to kill the high-speed train project if he’s elected. He has long argued against the streetcar line and recently came out against the KRM, a project he had not vocally opposed before.
Neumann, meanwhile, has said he would analyze the costs and benefits of the high-speed train, but would end work on it if “we find this thing is going to be an economic boondoggle for the people of this state.” He says he would apply the same approach to state aid for the KRM and the streetcar line.
