Milwaukee Common Council Affirms Support For High-Speed Rail

This is the Council's news release about its letter of support to US DOT Secretary Ray Lahood:

November 11, 2010    Bill Arnold (414) 286-3285

Common Council “On Board” in Rail Support Letter to USDOT Sec’y Ray LaHood

A majority of members of the Milwaukee Common Council have signed a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, expressing their continued support for building a Midwest high-speed rail network that initially would include an extension of the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha service to Madison.

In the letter, the members state they “continue to believe that this network will improve mobility and provide more travel choices for our constituents and will serve to create wealth and promote economic development in Milwaukee.”

The letter continues: “Moreover, as you know, this federal investment requires no state or local matching funds. This is a benefit to Wisconsin that is not even afforded under federal highway investments, which require state matches of 20 percent or more.

In other words, this investment will not require any expenditure from Wisconsin’s Highway Trust Fund, thereby enabling those resources to remain fully available for Wisconsin highway and bridge work.

(The) Common Council is on record in support of these rail infrastructure investments. For example, we invested $6.2 million in city funds to renovate and expand the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, and we have invested $6 million in city funds to acquire and renovate an industrial building in Milwaukee for the rail car manufacturer, Talgo, Inc. We overwhelmingly defeated a resolution that would have put the city on record as opposing the renovation of the platform areas of the intermodal station.”

Signers to the letter were: Common Council President Willie L. Hines, Jr.; Alderman Robert J. Bauman; Alderman Ashanti Hamilton; Alderman Joe Davis, Sr.; Alderman Nik Kovac; Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs; Alderman Willie C. Wade; Alderman Michael J. Murphy; Alderman Terry L. Witkowski; and Alderman Tony Zielinski.