Thursday, November 29, 2007

Support Growing For Rail Corridor From Milwaukee to Illinois

When the state dropped the bombshell that the cost to repair and expand I-94 From Milwaukee to the Illinois state line had doubled to $1.9 billion just as construction is to begin in 2008, more voices are calling for that price tag to drop about 10% so that commuter rail can be launched along the corridor, too.

It is finally dawning on people that transportation spending in Wisconsin is severely distorted, with highways getting nearly all the new-service money.

The highway expansion in our region is based on a now-outmoded study with traffic projections based on gasoline selling at $2.30/gallon.

Seen any of that lately as you, like most of us, try to save money by driving less?

3 comments:

Brian Calvert said...

Check the light rail project in Minneapolis. Are we sure this is worth it?

James Rowen said...

Whereas light rail is a good thing from Minn., and will be expanded, the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee project is commuter rail, with different equipment and purposes.

James Rowen said...

Ridership is upin Minn: 9.4 million in 2006 and a second line is in the works, fyi:
http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/lrt.htm