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For Immediate Release: Obama Administration Awards High Speed Rail Funds to Wisconsin Madison, Jan. 28 – Statement of WISPIRG Director Bruce Speight on today’s announcement from the Obama administration that Wisconsin will receive $823 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to prepare for high speed rail in the state. Continue reading Obama Administration Awards High Speed Rail Funds to Wisconsin Jason Stein Wisconsin will receive $810 million in federal stimulus money to establish high-speed passenger rail from Milwaukee to Madison and to study the possibility of extending it to the Twin Cities, President Barack Obama’s administration will announce Thursday. That would eventually bring 110 mph passenger rail service from Chicago to Madison after years of fruitless attempts to jump-start the project and give Madison its first passenger rail service since 1971. Tom Held Wisconsin will receive more than $800 million to build a high-speed rail line carrying passengers between Milwaukee and Madison at 110 mph and recapture a piece of a regional rail system largely abandoned six decades ago. The high-speed line could be up and running as early as 2013, the state says. Milwaukee Biz Blog Milwaukeeans and the few million other residents of the region should let out a collective three cheers for Gov. Jim Doyle for his leadership and vision on high-speed rail in Wisconsin. The governor deserves credit because decreasing travel times and increasing train frequencies on the current Chicago-Milwaukee Amtrak service and inaugurating 110 mph inter-city service between Milwaukee and Madison will have a dramatic, positive economic impact on Milwaukee and the region. Lawmakers signed off Tuesday on a $47.5 million state purchase of two high-speed trains from a Spanish company without a competitive bidding process. By Ryan J. Foley MADISON — Wisconsin lawmakers on Tuesday approved a $47 million no-bid contract to buy two passenger trains from a Spanish company under a plan to jump-start high-speed rail service in the state Wisconsin is closer than ever to gaining the high-speed rail service that is needed to put this state on the regional and national transportation map. In fact, the likelihood that a Chicago-Twin Cities route will make stops across the state is now so real that communities are fighting to be on it.
By Mike Ivey With federal funding for rail service between Madison and Milwaukee tantalizingly close, a group of downtown advocates — including a prominent real estate developer and a successful restaurant owner — is making a pitch for locating a new train station at First Street and East Washington Avenue rather than the Dane County Regional Airport. By Christena T. O’Brien Prospects for a high-speed rail stop in Eau Claire have brightened considerably in recent weeks, encouraging local rail advocates who have been working toward that goal since 1999. “This just makes sense,” said Scott Rogers, co-chairman of the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition. “This area is one of the fastest growing parts of the state, and the market is there.” By Larry Sandler, Stacy Forster and Patrick Marley A Spanish train company landed a $47 million state contract without competitive bidding, because using its trains will cut the cost of building a high-speed rail network by hundreds of millions of dollars, state officials say. The no-bid deal was allowed under a 12-year-old law that exempts all of the state’s passenger rail contracts from normal bidding rules. The Business Journal of Milwaukee
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