Walker Getting Closer To Wrecking High-Speed Rail, Jobs In Wisconsin
When will his Mission Accomplished banner be hung at the Intermodal station?
Quickly, say the Feds.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
High-Speed Rail – Growth in Number of Wisconsin Train Passengers
Check out this posting today at The New Republic’s Metro Policy blog at http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-avenue/79230/high-speed-railfree-puppies
I quote:
“The forthcoming Brookings analysis of Amtrak passenger trends shows fairly strong growth throughout the state [Wisconsin]. In fact, from FY 2005 to FY 2009 every Wisconsin station’s growth rate outpaced the national growth of 7.1 percent over the same period.”
Here’s a chart detailing the increase of Wisconsin train ridership at each train station as provided by TNR:
Amtrak Boardings and Alightings in Wisconsin, 2005 and 2009
Station 2005 2009 Change
Columbus 14,597 17,338 18.8%
La Crosse 24,397 30,569 25.3%
Milwaukee 474,808 553,475 16.6%
Mitchell Airport 30,415 147,299 384.3%
Portage 6,318 6,965 10.2%
Sturtevant 52,235 71,369 36.6%
Tomah 8,232 10,225 24.2%
Wisconsin Dells 11,289 13,549 20.0%
(2005) (2009)
Total U.S. 50,749,996 54,334,028 7.1% increase in ridership
TNR goes on to say that, “The question of whether the Milwaukee-Madison route will enjoy similar ridership is harder to answer since there is no service there currently. And parsing out the ridership projections is also no easy task, though the application materials estimate 1.1 million annual passenger trips on the Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Minneapolis route when the system is up and running.”
Walker claims Wisconsin can’t (won’t) commit to funding the yearly operating costs, even with the $810 million federal construction subsidy. However, after accounting for total increased state revenue from fares, the Journal-Sentinel reports that the federal government could be kicking in up to 90% of the remaining expected $7.5 million per year operating costs, leaving $750,000 for the state to cover. This sounds like the closest thing we have to a free lunch in this stressful economy, especially given the additional economic development expected by the rippling effect of high-speed rail.
But he won’t go for it, will he….?
High-Speed Rail – Growth in Number of Wisconsin Train Passengers
Check out this posting today at The New Republic’s Metro Policy blog at http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-avenue/79230/high-speed-railfree-puppies
I quote:
“The forthcoming Brookings analysis of Amtrak passenger trends shows fairly strong growth throughout the state [Wisconsin]. In fact, from FY 2005 to FY 2009 every Wisconsin [train] station’s growth rate outpaced the national growth of 7.1 percent over the same period.” (See chart at blog.)
TNR goes on to say that, “The question of whether the Milwaukee-Madison route will enjoy similar ridership is harder to answer since there is no service there currently. And parsing out the ridership projections is also no easy task, though the application materials estimate 1.1 million annual passenger trips on the Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Minneapolis route when the system is up and running.”
Walker claims Wisconsin can’t (won’t) commit to funding the yearly operating costs, even after the $810 million federal construction subsidy. However, after accounting for total increased state revenue from fares, the Journal-Sentinel reports that the federal government could be kicking in up to 90% of the remaining $7.5 million per year operating costs, leaving $750,000 for the state to cover. This sounds like the closest thing we have to a free lunch in this stressful economy, especially given the additional economic development expected by the rippling effect of high-speed rail.
But he won’t go for it, will he….?
The . . . dumbest. . . not-Gov. . . EVER. . . . .
Will the billboard say
"Wisconsin.duh" ? If so, I'll kick in some cash for that!
How about: "When God was handing out brains, Walker thought God said 'trains' . . . and he dissed his.
Post a Comment