Monday, May 25, 2009

High Speed Rail in Wisconsin

9:03 PM  Justin Mitchell  4 comments

Forty university of Wisconsin system students are traveling this week from Green Bay through Oshkosh to Milwaukee, to Madison and La Crosse, over four days to show support for Wisconsin ’s proposed high speed rail route.

Included in the grand effort is a connection of Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Twin Cities route with high speed rail. Congress this year passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will spend $8 billion for high speed rail on projects that have not yet been determined. Governor Doyle and WISDOT Secretary Busalacchi are advocating to bring high speed rail to Wisconsin ; they are seeking Recovery funds to connect Madison and Milwaukee with intercity rail as part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, a nine-state project that would connect over 100 Midwestern cities and link the region’s major economic centers. Doing so will give us more transportation choices, alternatives to lengthy airport delays, and reduced dependence on oil, while helping to rebuild our economy. Wisconsin would especially benefit because it is perfectly situated in the corridor connecting Chicago to the Twin Cities.

Enthusiasm for the project among students and other young people is infectious. At most stops students are planning a short bike route through each town to the location of the media event. WISPIRG students will wear matching t-shirts and carry a giant map of the proposed train route.

Come join in to show support for bringing high speed rail to Wisconsin !

Monday, May 25
10am Green Bay National Railroad Museum
1pm Appleton Houdini Plaza, downtown Appleton
3pm Oshkosh Opera House Square

Tuesday, May 26
10am Milwaukee Downtown Transit Center
1pm Brookfield Town Hall
3pm Oconomowoc Maxims, 115 E. Collins St .

Wednesday, May 27
10am Madison State Capitol
3pm Portage TBD

Thursday, May 28
10am Wisconsin Dells TBD
3pm La Crosse The Train Station, 601 St. Andrews St .

If you have any questions, contact Bruce Speight at WISPIRG at bspeight@wispirg.org or (608) 251-9501 (office) or (608) 658-3517 (cell).

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4 comments:

I am fully in support of high speed or any commuter rail in Wisconsin, especially on the routes being discussed:

Chicago-Milwaukee-Oshkosh-Green Bay

Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Minneapolis

Yes and yes. I think the idea is great.. and too far out of reach for most in this community to grasp. Way too many people seem to say they don't like it with the reasoning based on they have no experience with this sort of thing. While this isn't uncommon, be real that never leaving Oshkosh doesn't give you a great expanse of experiences.

I hope this group does a great job promoting the benefits of such a project.

The only people who are for this don't live near the proposed route. They want to put this one mile from my home. Would any of you want 17 round trip trains traveling 110 MPH near your home? As long as it's not in your backyard, eh? I live in the country for a reason, the peace and quiet. Not to listen to yet another unnecessary means of transportation running constantly. Why not use the already noisy route along the inerstate highway?

Justin,

Where is the proposed route? The one that is currently used in Oshkosh along Grand?

I can see that line from my porch (down the road a half dozen blocks) and I am for it.

There won't be 17 high speed commuter rail trains going through daily, that's just silly. It would be more reasonable for there to be 2 or 3 per day.

Is there demand? I think so. I've taken the Greyhound to Milwaukee and it is usually packed.

If they had a station near Lambeau field can you imagine the use on Sundays???

Also once established, people make living and working decisions based on mass transit. When I took the train from Kenosha to Chicago I saw lots of white collar folks getting off the train at 5 pm in Kenosha and getting on their bikes to peddle the rest of the way home. If people could work in Milwaukee or Green Bay and only have a 30 minute commute by train from Oshkosh where the cost of living (home prices especially) are low and K-12 Education is high quality, boom town.

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