Wisconsin News and Sports
A new report touts the benefits high speed rail could bring to Wisconsin. The study from WISPIRG shows proposed high speed rail lines across the Midwest would bring a big boost to the economy.
Director Bruce Speight says a complete Midwest high speed rail network could create 57,000 permanent jobs and over 15,000 jobs tied directly to the construction of the project. About 13-thousand of those would be in Wisconsin. [Read more...]
Plans to build a high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison continue to draw fire from Republicans.
The $800 million plan has become a major issue on the campaign trail for the GOP, with Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker this week launching a campaign ad and petition website against the project. Both Walker and his primary opponent, former Congressman Mark Neumann, have said they’ll stop the project if they’re elected. [Read more...]
Governor Jim Doyle and local officials announced a final location for a high speed rail station in downtown Madison on Thursday, and the governor again dismissed the threats of Republican candidates for governor who’ve threatened to pull the plug on the Madison to Milwaukee service if elected. “We are entering into the appropriate agreements with the federal government,” said Doyle. “I guess short of sitting down in the front of the federal government and defying the federal government, I don’t think it’s realistic to say that this project would stop.”
Gov. Jim Doyle flanked by Dane Co. Exec Kathleen Falk & Mayor Dave Cieslewicz (IMAGE: WRN)
The Doyle Depot? Madison will have a new high speed rail station downtown, and if the city’s Mayor has his way, it will be named after Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. Doyle made the announcement Thursday that a site in the heart of downtown Madison has been selected over three others, including Dane County Regional Airport. The governor said a High-Speed Rail Station Feasibility Assessment indicated that the site on the Lake Monona side of Madison’s isthmus had higher projected ridership with costs roughly the same as other locations. And he noted that the city is already planning new parking. “And there is no doubt that what people wanted is to come to downtown Madison” Doyle said. [Read more...]
With amenities such as “bistro cars” and WI-FI access, Governor Jim Doyle says Wisconsin is going to be able to demonstrate a new kind of passenger rail service to the rest of the country, and to do it first. “We are going to move beyond all of the preliminary engineering and the design. In the next two years we are actually going to have modern trains riding over tracks, providing service to people in this state,” Doyle said during a meeting with federal railroad officials in Milwaukee on Thursday. [Read more...]
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