WisDOT and the Minnesota Department of Transportation are seeking public input on the proposed Twin Cities-Milwaukee-Chicago passenger rail project to improve intercity rail service and add a second daily round trip.
The addition of an extra trip per day between the Twin Cities and Chicago would allow for more passengers and increase the flexibility of the trip, making it easier to make connections to other transportation on the route.
The partners on this project ?include:
- Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois Departments of Transportation
- Amtrak
- ?Federal Railroad Administration
- La Crosse Area Planning Committee
- Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority
The project would spend $53 million dollars to do infrastructure improvements to the existing Empire Builder route. More information on the project is available on the DOT website at https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/multimodal/tcmc.aspx
The feedback form for leaving comments is available at https://www.pima.wisconsindot.gov/public/comment/project-comment-dynami…
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A big Walker put-down
So Governor Overreach has failed in his latest skin-back, an attempt to get $150 million in federal grants to help upgrade rail service between Milwaukee and Chicago. Scott Walker made the push after killing the $810 million Madison-to-Milwaukee high-speed rail expansion project and taking huge amounts of political heat for it.
US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's explanation for why Wisconsin came up with a goose egg:
"The announcements we're making today are with the strongest partners in America. These are reliable people. These are people [who] have as one of their highest priorities the development of high-speed rail."
Which is to say, the federal DOT doesn't regard Walker as reliable. Join the club, Mr. LaHood.
LaHood is a former GOP congressman from Illinois. He announced that all of the available $2 billion would go to 15 other states, including some neighbors of Wisconsin. Wisconsin and Kansas were the only midwestern states that applied for rail money but didn't get any.
So, in terms of job creation and decent passenger rail service and all the economic development that will ride with it, Wisconsin will continue to fall behind every other state whose borders it touches. Decades of hard work on passenger rail by Wisconsin Democrats and Republicans alike, wasted.
Steve is a member of LION Publishers , the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce, the Online News Association, and the Local Media Consortium, and is active in Health Dunn Right.
He has been a computer guy most of his life but has published a political blog, a discussion website, and now Eye On Dunn County.
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