Walker wants rail funding for WI

[BigBlueBuddha]

Since November, he has lost even more support as a result of his positions, including his position against the Milwaukee-Madison Hiawatha extension.

It's too bad the proposed service wasn't billed as a Hiawatha extension. The term High Speed Rail sounds phishy, even to this passenger rail diehard.

PaulM: spot on.

They (HSR proponents) flubbed the language and lost the initiative. An extension or improvement of existing service sounds more reasonable (is less of a stretch) than brand new service.

 

[steamtrain6868]

This guy is nuttier then Charlie Sheen......There is already high speed rail service to Chicago. and slow speed bus service from Kenosha to Racine to Milwaukee for 6.00 on Coach USA....what is needed is light rail for Milwaukee and Normal Speed Trains to Madison.

 

[Eric S]

This guy is nuttier then Charlie Sheen......There is already high speed rail service to Chicago. and slow speed bus service from Kenosha to Racine to Milwaukee for 6.00 on Coach USA....what is needed is light rail for Milwaukee and Normal Speed Trains to Madison.

The 79mph max Hiawatha between CHI & MKE is high speed rail?

 

[George Harris]

Two weeks before that study went public, the Governor decided to cancel the HSR project. In doing so he pointed to a Reason Foundation study that supported his decision.

The HSR option being mulled in CA is hysterical. They want to connect two teeny towns with the most expensive rail technology.
If they REALLY wanted to get a ROI for a High Speed Rail-toy, build a BRAND NEW ROW from NY to BOS.

No, they want to build the first leg of a HSR system that will run between the two biggest cities in California. And with the contraints of the Stimulus monies that require it to be spent by a certain date or lose it, building this leg is the only way to ensure that construction starts in time so as to not lose the money.

I always smell a rat when I see these organizations will high sounding names like "Reason Foundation" or "Public Purpose" or whatever, regardless of where they are in the political spectrum. Call yourself the "Bob Smith Foundation" or whatever, but don't try to wrap your viewpoint inside a high sounding name.

The major problem with the Reason Foundation's perspective on rail issues is that they appear to take their talking points from Wendell Cox who seems to be the mouthpiece for the perspectives of the auto manufacturers and oil companies on anything that could affect their markets. I always ask, if "nobody will ride trains" they what are you afraid of?

As to the dear gov, he appears to suffer from a lack of thought on many things. But, do not think of his election as a single issue result. There were many things about the other candidate that smelled to a lot of people. For many of the pro-rail people in Florida, the thought was that if it took having the rail system deferred to get rid of that turkey, so be it.

As to the Calif system: You start where you can and get as far as you can with what you have available. But if you want to ever haved a system, you must start somewhere. You cannot build it all at once. It is like the old story of, "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer is very simple: One bite at a time.

Considering the well publicised uproar of the NIMBY element in the last 45 miles into San Francisco and that the Connecticut population is probably similar in both density and mindset, the though of building a new line between NY and Bos approaches hallucination, and if it were to actually happen, it would end up costing far more than the twice as long SF to LA line. Also, here is fairly fast electric train service between those points now. California does not have that at all.

 

[The Journalist]

The major problem with the Reason Foundation's perspective on rail issues is that they appear to take their talking points from Wendell Cox who seems to be the mouthpiece for the perspectives of the auto manufacturers and oil companies on anything that could affect their markets. I always ask, if "nobody will ride trains" they what are you afraid of?

The Reason foundation, the Heritage foundation, the Cato institute, and the various "citizens for progress" PACs all are run by the same group of people, and funded by, as you postulated, the auto and (mainly) oil industries.They all cite each other's "research" to seem more legitimate, but none of them have any meaningful credentials at all. Some of them worked for Big Tobacco in years past when their main goal was to discredit scientific research linking smoking to cancer.

 

[jis]

It has always occurred to me that when there is scant evidence supporting the things that you want to say, that is precisely the situation where you'd want to call yourself Reason Foundation, and then proceed to try to throw FUD and obfuscate your way through the world.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Calling yourself a generalized think tank makes you suspicious. Certain among us can create a reasonable rail think tank. Hut even if we are among the brightest rail thinkers in history, we may not be even qualified to render opiniOns on general finance, for example.

 

[Steve4031]

Can we get back to talking about the train stuff and leave politics out of this? Every time I see a new post, I check for news and get a political debate instead. LOL I'm more interested in the operation logistics than politics.

 

[volkris]

The problem is, operation logistics and politics are entirely intertwined.

You want to plan your operational logistics so as to best serve customers, right? Well, government is effectively a huge customer of rail. The logistics have to spend their time weaving and adjusting to try to please the politicians the same way it would have to take into account a new vacation spot that's putting increased demand on a line.

[editing out a criticism of members of this forum for their lack of interest in things like facts, numbers, and reasoning that goes against their beliefs]

 

[Ryan]

[editing out a criticism of members of this forum for their lack of interest in things like facts, numbers, and reasoning that goes against their beliefs]

Wow, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

 

[jis]

[editing out a criticism of members of this forum for their lack of interest in things like facts, numbers, and reasoning that goes against their beliefs]

Something about people in glass houses should not ...... At least I am glad realization is dawning that those repeated baseless opinions are tedious, boring and pointless, since they have little to do with reality Afrterall it is just a fond belief of the person stating that opinion and nothing more