Not everyone is ready to climb aboard Governor Jim Doyle's new $47 million dollar Spanish train sets. "This is the out of control spending that has our country in this financial mess in the first place. We are all going wind up spending the rest of our lives repaying our debt to the Chinese," says State Senator Glenn Grothman, a Republican who serves on the Senate transportation committee.
"Everywhere we go, we hear that we have too high taxes here, and sometimes we have complaints that some services have already been cut. There is already Hiawatha service, as well as Greyhound bus service, between Milwaukee and Chicago," says Grothman. The trains, built by the Spanish firm Talgo, will replace Amtrak's existing Hiawatha trains when high speed service begins on that route in 2011. Doyle announced the plan to buy them on Friday.
"Just as scary is the fact that Governor Doyle apparently someday wants a train between Milwaukee and Madison," says Grothman. "We have a Badger Bus that already covers this route, and quite frankly does it with more flexibility."