Scott Walker hasn't been sworn in as Governor, and his reactionary narrow-mindedness in forcing the cancellation of high-speed rail contracting will cost the state $100 million and 400 jobs at a minimum.
With more jobs lost through the 2013 construction plan, and perhaps with the relocation of the train assembly plant being built in Milwaukee by Talgo to handle the Wisconsin train set assemblage, and possibly others for other state.
I would also not be surprised if the feds penalize Wisconsin for screwing up the high-speed rail funding and withhold some of Scott Walker's precious highway funding: a nice 10-15% penalty would set back the Zoo Interchange for another five years: ironic, given Walker's obeisance to his Waukesha commuting constituents and regional conservative alk radio which together make up a big chunk of the $2+ billion Zoo Interchange cheering section.
Excising the Milwaukee-Madison high-speed rail segment will maroon our citizens and make the entire Midwest High-Speed Rail network inefficient.
And weaken the successful Milwaukee-Chicago Amtrak line because some of the funding being forfeited at Walker's direction would have upgraded that route's roadbed, stations and train sets.
All in all, a horrible outcome for Wisconsin, which is heading for four backward moving years under Walker and his talk radio/tea party handlers.
James,
ReplyDeleteYour desperate repition of the same old arguments aren't helping your cause.
The rail jobs are mostly fiction, particularly when you try to use them as Wisconsin jobs. The rail work is almost entirely contract work for crews that roam.
The Talgo, no-bid, jobs were nothing more than assembly jobs and even then they were sketchy.
And our reputation is being a state that had no interest in connecting two cities and pretending that it was part of a national network of high-speed rail.
The train was neither high-speed, nor part of a national network.
We already have rail to Minneapolis.
Either way, making the current route or the diversion to Madison, it was never going to be high-speed.
That’s the dirty little secret that your side continues to lie about.
It’s just a plain-ole train.
The actual cost for high-speed rail to Minneapolis is exponentially higher than the $810 million – closer to $10 billion and not part of the “national” plan.
Nice try though.
Is Governor Thompson whispering in Walker's ear at all? I know he was suddenly against trains during the run up to this last election, but he's always been a train enthusiast in the past and surely understands what this means for the state's economy. Of course, Walker can just ignore him like he ignores all other good advice...
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