Wisconsin and the Milwaukee area can become a national rail production hub if leaders play their cards correctly - - and that begins with shutting out the region's mini-Limbaughs who use rail as a rhetorical tool to whip up their audiences.
Midwestern High-Speed Rail is on its way, thanks to the Obama administration.
Wisconsin has already committed to buyimg and assembling two modern trains sets. Minnesota has begun High-Speed Rail investments. Chicago's Union Station will be the center. You get the picture. A modern, pleasant rail alternative to long car rides or medium-distance commuter air connections will link St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and other cities on these routes.
Super Steel, with Japanese partners, already makes rail cars and equipment for Metra and other systems nationally. The know-how and business infrastructure is already here. But for export out of Wisconsin. It's time to turn that around and expand the base that is here.
Yet every advance or glimmer of hope in the area of rail transit as an economic engine and customer benefit is attacked by right-wing talk radio.
Having used light rail for more than a decade to terrify suburbanites living beyond the legally-land locked big city, talk radio plays the "choo-choo train" demagogue/ratings card to attack transit and government investment in transportation options.
It's a sick and corrosive game.
Leaders have to turn off the radio and keep their eyes looking forward to High-Speed rail and to local connections, whether commuter rail, light rail or variations on urban trolleys.
When the guided bus system was on the table for discussion, the Canadian firm Bombardier discussed building the vehicles here in Milwaukee and using this local system as a demonstration project.
Milwaukee could have received solid employment benefits as a result, not to mention a substantial discount on the equipment.
But talk radio blasted the system as more light rail, which it was not, and that option is pretty much shelved.
Out of the wreckage of the recession, some hope is emerging for Milwaukee: new water-related businesses, battery technologies and also a modern rail industry suggest a green business revolution that captures the best of the city's industrial past, its geographical advantages, labor pool and private sector presence.
As these processes move forward, a quieter and calmer environment is needed - - beginning with an intentional avoidance of talk radio chaff that keeps Milwaukee and the state on a sidetrack.
We're falling behind. You need only look to Europe and China where real high speed railroad infrastructure is gaining big investment dollars. Fortune magazine had an article that discusses how China is laying out almost 16,000 miles of new track (see http://bit.ly/1D3y5X). This this year alone they will invest ~$50 billion on high speed lines including 220 mph lines between Shanghai and Beijing. This investment is almost 7x greater than the $8 billion in the stimulus package for "high speed rail". Wisconsin should be on the leading edge of this global trend.
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