Ald. Bob Bauman Weighs In On High Speed Rail Station Issue

[Ald. Bauman sent this to me, and as it was too long to include as a comment to an earlier posting, agreed that I could run it separately, which I am happy to do:]

The proposed Milwaukee to Madison high speed rail line will become a reality at least as far as the upgrading of the rail lines to accommodate high speed passenger trains.

It is possible that the next governor could block the appropriation of state funds for operating costs, however, that would set up the rather ridiculous situation of having a new and upgraded rail line with no trains running on it. It would be like spending $823M on a new highway and then refusing to fund the cost of policing, snow plowing, routine maintenance, street lights, etc. thereby effectively preventing any motor vehicles from using that new road.

It is highly unlikely that any reasonable elected official, even a conservative elected official, will allow this to happen especially in light of the fact that, unlike local transit, intercity rail passengers tend to be middle and upper middle class persons who vote including campaign contributing business persons.

Based on ridership between Milwaukee and Chicago even Republicans ride the train. WisDOT is moving very quickly to let contracts for all or most of the $823M prior to January, 2011. A significant number of jobs will be attached to these contracts and politically powerful engineering firms (HNTB) and road builders will be the contractors.

There is nothing anyone can do about this since the necessary funding agreements have been entered into between the WisDOT and the Federal Railroad Administration. In addition, if these contracts are cancelled down the road, some portion of the federal money would have to be refunded (or the Feds will simply deduct the money from Wisconsin's federal highway appropriation; i.e. less money for the Zoo Interchange and countless other highway projects). In short the next governor will face the choice of either allowing the work to proceed or asking the legislature to write a check for the federal funds expended to date.

I cannot envision the latter scenario happening. Accordingly, the time is ripe to lobby for a western Milwaukee County station. This rail line will become reality no matter what talk radio says so even opponents would be well advised to make the best of this infrastructure investment.