Amtrak, Streetcar Benefits Denied To WI, Affirmed Elsewhere

Conservatives would have you believe that passenger rail doesn't help the economy, but if that were true, why would leading buyers of train equipment on both coasts - - the State of California and Amtrak, headquartered in Washington, D.C. - - make the documentation of job-creation a required part of the bidding process?

In the RFP, bidders are asked to submit information identifying U.S. production sites; a description of jobs that could be created for both skilled and unskilled workers; total compensation and benefit types that would be provided; workforce training plans; outreach and recruitment plans for new hires; the manufacturers’ experience in successfully implementing employment strategies; and information on how the employment plan would cascade to subcontractors and component suppliers.

The bidding requirement underscores a simple truth that Wisconsin talk radio hosts and the right-wing politicians who kneel before them alternately deny, mock and miscommunicate in a political game they manipulate for their own needs - - votes and rating points - - at the expense of the workforce and economic development along the Amtrak, commuter rail and municipal streetcar lines they continue to block.

That simple truth:

Passenger rail creates jobs.

Former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel transportation reporter Larry Sandler in early 2012 had laid out the train-assembling, rail construction and spin-off jobs lost when GOP gubernatorial-candidate-and-later-Governor Scott Walker effectively scuttled the Milwaukee-Madison Amtrak extension that was also projected as a link in a multi-state, higher-speed passenger service upgrade:

Talgo, a Spanish train manufacturer, is seeking a Wisconsin plant to assemble trains that could run on this route. The Talgo business could create 50 to 60 jobs building two trains that the state already has ordered for the existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha service, plus another 20 to 30 more building two more trains for high-speed service, says Jim Schmelzer, president of Super Steel Products Corp., which is seeking the work.

Counting "indirect" jobs at suppliers would add another 152 jobs this year, 479 next year, 647 in 2012, 202 in 2013, 54 in 2014 and 11 in 2015. State and local government jobs, including planners, engineers and project managers, would total 67 this year, 212 next year, 291 in 2012, 109 in 2013, 47 in 2014 and 26 in 2015. Klein said personnel hired by the state Department of Transportation for this project would hold their jobs no more than four years.

Therefore, total employment specifically linked to the train line would be 1,100 this year, 3,483 next year, 4,732 in 2012, 1,542 in 2013, 483 in 2014 and 167 in 2015.

Here is a documented summary and timeline of the loss of the Amtrak jobs in Wisconsin.

And about the Milwaukee streetcar the Walkerites continue to block, here's another truth that the talkers and their ideological political allies deny and twist

Streetcar systems also create jobs and development, principally in the downtowns they heavily serve.

Consider these numbers about just one city cited in a posting about several municipalities' streetcar projects nationwide - - numbers that are lost on Walker, his anti-rail team, and to the detriment of Wisconsin businesses, workers, students, city-dwellers and tourists, too:

When it opens for revenue service this summer, [Tuscon's streetcar] Sun Link will connect the University of Arizona, University of Arizona Medical Center, the 4th Avenue and Main Gate business districts, downtown Tucson and the city's Westside redevelopment district. City officials estimate about 100,000 people live and work within a half mile of the streetcar route.

And since 2010, the planned system has helped attract student housing, retail shops, restaurants and entertainment-focused businesses. City officials believe Sun Link will help promote Tucson as "a hub of business, retail, the arts, technology, education and innovation," according to the Sun Link website....

The Tucson Downtown Partnership has estimated more than $800 million of public and private investment has occurred along the future Sun Link line since the project was approved.  

Cross-posted at Purple Wisconsin.