Many years ago, the Congressional District he represented had good passenger rail services from Chicago and Milwaukee. With Wisconsin's plans to expand Amtrak further into the state with additional destinations and serving more communities, it will be interesting to see if he helps that along or undermines it.
Almost everyone who voted for him in those elections, also voted for Scott Walker. Duffy's district hasn't had passenger rail for 5 decades, and that's enough time for any residents to forget what they once had. Those who voted for Duffy don't use transit, and almost all of them
have never taken a train trip, ever. They drive everywhere, and are highly accustomed to driving everywhere, and see nothing wrong about that. His personal views are most likely a reflection of that. Drive everywhere, never used trains or transit -- and they think that nobody uses them. During the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial race ( when Duffy was elected to office ), it was apparent that many who opposed the Madison service extension had only talk radio as their sole source of information regarding passenger train service, with the themes of passenger train = "wasteful government spending," "government waste," "government ineptitude," " Nobody rides, or will ever ride, trains," and especially "taxpayer rip off," "taxpayer boondoggle," et al., with other anti- government statements. Duffy has most likely never set foot aboard a train. His wife did, once, and probably became a "Never Again" passenger. I expect any future funding fights to be uphill battle, though I think there are more people who soured on the Duffy / Trump version of politics, and who are aware of just what was rejected in 2010, to gain some ground. However, I think it will be some tough going.
