High speed rail to Madison!

[Skud]

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/loc...cc4c002e0.html

Wisconsin is receiving $800 million of federal stimulus cash to develop rail service from Madison to Milwaukee, and improve existing service between Chicago and Milwaukee (hopefully it will some day connect Minneapolis as well [would only make sense]...oh, then we'd have even more vikings and bears fans in Madison!). I see this as a good thing. The state has been struggling for years to build a rail connection between the cities to ease congestion on the interstates and to improve trade, tourism, connectivity (I pretty much gave up driving down to Chicago after the last time, which because of construction on their toll roads, took almost 3 times the two hours it should have ). Anyway, I won't go into the many ways that this will benefit the area, but trust me, I'm kinda pumped.

[Duke{CLR}]

Rail Shmail take a plane.

[Rand{CLR}]

We're a third world country with regard to infrastructure, including rail, so anything that gives us high speed and starts to introduce techs here like Maglev, I'm all for.

-Rand

[Skud]

We're a third world country with regard to infrastructure, including rail, so anything that gives us high speed and starts to introduce techs here like Maglev, I'm all for.

-Rand

True. With so many miles between the metropolitan areas in the US, the rail seems to be a no-brainer.

And lol @ Duke, I expect no less from you, smart...apple! Anyway, this will make it easier for me to take planes, as fares are cheaper from Milwaukee and Chicago, because of volume. Maybe I'll visit you in 2014 or when this thing is done.

[Minerva]

I absolute the high speed train in Spain (AVE), and soon to be connected with the French TGV!

I hope you get it!... we can't complain about our infrastructures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnSKhch9CLM

[baconoclock]

I rode on a train from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, was my first time on one but i must say I hope we can get decent infrastructure like that.

A train ride across the state here takes 5 hours, which is about an hour and a half longer than driving.

[K PhaNTOM]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand our debt grows larger.

[Pumpkin_Jack]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand our debt grows larger.

W8 this is federal funding or is is Wisconsin blowing its own money?

[PerfectH]

We have Amtrak up here in New England, and from Rutland, VT to New York City, NY (Penn Station) takes about 9 hours I think. My sister went to college in NY so she commuted for vacation on the train a lot. It's pretty slow, I've ridden it a couple times, too.

[K PhaNTOM]

W8 this is federal funding or is is Wisconsin blowing its own money?

"Wisconsin is receiving $800 million of federal stimulus cash to develop"

[homosapien15]

phantom you should be happy. They're using the old Republican adage "Gotta spend money to make money."

Politics aside, projects like these do have high initial cost, but the cost of ownership will not be high in the long run.