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7/16/2010
On high-speed rail: An open letter to the legislature
Wisconsin – and the nation – simply cannot afford both expansive highways and expensive rail transportation. The letter below was written to his legislator by a highly credible FoxPolitics reader with expertise – and no axe to grind. It’s something every legislator in Wisconsin should hear. JAE
Dear Rep. ____:
As we have been reading about the high speed rail initiative, I think there is great irony in the $800 million planned for high speed rail at the same time that an equal or greater amount is being spent on its direct competition: widening Milwaukee-Chicago and Oshkosh-Green Bay interstate highways and making the trains less attractive compared with auto travel.
I worked for WisDOT in the 1980s and was part of a team that put together a fairly extensive study of Amtrak service to Green Bay, Madison and Minneapolis. The outcome of the study was that, other than Milwaukee-Chicago, government subsidies per passenger for intercity rail service would be many times the amount that passengers would be willing to pay for a train ticket. Both politically and economically, intercity rail does not work in a light density state like Wisconsin.
Lest you think I am anti-mass transit, I grew up in Philadelphia and used both commuter and intercity rail extensively there. Public transit is a great way to travel when commuting or traveling by car is too expensive and slow. In Wisconsin, other than Milwaukee-Chicago, the situation is much different.
The state is planning a whole new system of rail travel between Milwaukee and Madison, which would be a whole new lifestyle to most Wisconsinites, while also widening the highways to make it easier for them to continue their present driving lifestyle. One other complication with rail travel is how to get from the destination station to the person's actual destination. That requires frequent and fast local transit, which is not generally available here.
We simply cannot afford two duplicate systems of travel. This is where good public policy is needed.
In any given corridor, either we should build the rail service while making it more difficult and expensive to travel by auto between the larger cities (e.g., tolls), or we continue to build highways, but not both! [Sir], I hope that you will support good public policy in transportation so that we can have reasonable taxes and an efficient and appropriately funded statewide transportation network.
COMMENTS
I agree with the writer. This is another boondoggle that is going to cost more money than it saves. If I am correct AMTRAK is already taxpayer subsidized. Do we need more? Who is paying off whom?
Yea, we need "pay for performance" alright. For our politicians! This plan would never have gotten this far with good thinking.
Jack Lohman (Fri Jul 16 08:40:12 2010)
Don't forget that airlines are also taxpayer supported.
emily matthews (Fri Jul 16 08:44:37 2010)
Ms. Matthews,
No, we haven't forgotten. So are all sorts of other businesses: IBM, Boeing, General Electric, Archer Daniels Midland, to name but a few. The question is: Why? Are these corporations unable to turn a profit without government (taxpayer) assistance?
If there is any other Wisconsin government boondoggle bigger than the proposed high-speed rail line from Milwaukee to Madison, I've yet to hear of it. When the construction costs balloon by 50% or more and the ridership turns out to be 50% less than projected, the public subsidies for this monstrosity will only grow.
This whole proposal should be taken out behind the barn and killed with an ax.
Steve Erbach
Neenah
Steve Erbach (Fri Jul 16 09:46:59 2010)
Steve, you are 100% correct on what should be done, but many on this blog like to ignore why these stupid decisions are made in the first place. It is called political bribes, and Amtrak and those you list have made good use of them. The high-speed rail is just the tip of the iceberg. Better to ask, why has our nation's economy crashed.
Jack Lohman (Fri Jul 16 09:56:21 2010)
I truly appreciate the candor and wisdom of the writer's comments on high-speed rail in Wisconsin at this time.
Simultaneous with the award of $800 million for this boondoggle, Wisconsin's allocation for "shovel-ready" Transportation Infrastructure Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funding from the Federal Highways Administration, was reduced by $300 million, sorely constraining the creation of urgently needed jobs and infrastructure upgrades throughout Wisconsin. Apparently, Wisconsin was not entitled to both high-speed and TIGER funds..so new jobs lost and the highspeed rail won. This was unfortunate.
Elaine Willman (Fri Jul 16 11:25:13 2010)
Elaine, my concern is with the logic. This is not a good, profitable long-term investment that any sane businessman would invest in. We don't need temporary construction jobs that are going to dry up; we need to revisit NAFTA and the other programs that have allowed our jobs to leave the country.
Jack Lohman (Fri Jul 16 11:56:10 2010)
Jack is right on high speed rail and on the need to revisit NAFTA and other such programs. NAFTA has cost us jobs and the high speed rail is nothing less than a pay off to Doyle's lobbyists. Nobody can justify the cost/ benefits of Doyle's high speed rail system. It needs to be killed before it grows.
Edward Perkins (Mon Jul 19 11:45:35 2010)
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