I visited Milwaukee on the Sunday before Labor Day this year. I haven’t uploaded any photos or written about the trip. My friend Brandon and I brought our fixed-gear bicycles and rode around town for several hours. Here’s a video of some of their streets and trails.
Tag: Wisconsin
It’s official: U.S. DOT takes away Wisconsin’s high-speed rail money
UPDATE 12-13-10: Yonah Freemark at The Transport Politic explains that the governors-elect of Wisconsin and Ohio have caused Florida to receive all the necessary funding to build its Tampa to Orlando link, but also which barriers might still stand in the way. Also check out the comments on that page to read about the backlash in Wisconsin and Ohio because of the lost opportunities.
And gives some to Illinois!
Transportation Nation has the press release from the United States Department of Transportation (secretary Ray LaHood) describing who will get $1.195 billion in ARRA funding for high-speed rail projects.
A tinny portion will stay in Wisconsin to support the Hiawatha line, a key route between Milwaukee and Chicago with growing ridership. Illinois began using its ARRA grants to build new track on the Chicago-St. Louis right.
San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom, and DOT secretary Ray LaHood, attend the groundbreaking of the Transbay Transit Center, expected to be the peninsula terminus of the California High-Speed Rail network. Read more about the first segment of that project. Photo taken in August 2010.
Who else gets some of that? These states:
California: up to $624 million
Florida: up to $342.3 million
Washington State: up to $161.5 million
Illinois: up to $42.3 million
New York: up to $7.3 million
Maine: up to $3.3 million
Massachusetts: up to $2.8 million
Missouri up to $2.2 million
Wisconsin: up to $2 million for the Hiawatha line
Oregon: up to $1.6 million
North Carolina: up to $1.5 million
Iowa: up to $309,080
Indiana: up to $364,980
Who wants to give up high-speed rail
UPDATED: 11/16/10 and 11/19/10 to include new reports from Journal-Sentinel about Walker’s campaign contributions and to reorder the timeline (now in chronological order) and news about North Carolina.
The Governors-elect of Wisconsin (Scott Walker) and Ohio (John Kasich) made it clear during their campaigns that they would put an end to current or upcoming high-speed rail construction paid for mostly by competitive grants from the Department of Transportation.
Illinois was the first state to start high-speed rail construction using federal stimulus money. Photo taken just outside of Springfield, right before IDOT announced the first phase of track construction (from Alton to Springfield) is complete and phase two should have begun yesterday, Monday (from Springfield to Lincoln).
Because of their stance, and because Secretary Ray LaHood has made it clear that Wisconsin’s $810 million and Ohio’s $400 can only be used for high-speed rail, the news changes daily. Here’s the latest in the chronology that’s happened in the past two weeks:
- Transit and rail advocates discuss role (11/04/10)Â probable Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair John Mica.
- Cleveland resident Angie Schmitt writes to John Kasich (Ohio) asking that he refrain from killing the 3C* project (11/05/10).
- Illinois Department of Transportation tells Wisconsin, “We’ll take it,” (11/09/10) referring to the $810 million now in flux.
- Talgo, a Spanish train manufacturer, set up shop in Milwaukee earlier this year to build trains for Wisconsin. With the current saga, they’ve suggested they may move the plant (11/11/10) to a more supportive state (Governor Quinn is calling for them to come to Illinois).
- People rally in Milwaukee on Monday (11/15/10) to persuade Walker to change his mind.
- Walker (Wisconsin)Â might have a change of heart (11/15/10), but not for the original Madison to Milwaukee route.
- The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting on the highway and road builders’ contributions to Walker’s campaign (11/16/10). Via Chicagoist – and I wouldn’t call that Chicago-style politics, just lobbying.
- May North Carolina have some piece of the pie, please? (11/17/10)
- California, the state with the best plan to install high-speed rail with speeds comparable to trains in Europe and Asia also seeking the same pot of cash. (11/17/10)
LaHood is laying on the pressure that high-speed rail will happen, but perhaps not in Wisconsin, if Walker has his way.
*3C stands for Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus.
Two Amtrak trains waiting to depart Chicago Union Station (CUS) in May 2010. Photo by Eric Pancer.