Wisconsin Regional Transportation Authorities

For Immediate Release:
2010-01-28
Bruce Speight
(608) 251-9501

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.

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Jason Stein
Wisconsin State Journal

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.

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Tom Held
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

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By Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Jan. 19, 2010

South Milwaukee – Milwaukee County could create its own transit authority, funded by a sales tax of up to a half-cent, to take over the county’s cash-strapped bus system, under proposed legislation unveiled Tuesday.

The full 0.5% sales tax would bring in about $60 million a year, or roughly $20 million more than the Milwaukee County Transit System would need to end property tax support and meet its funding needs, bus system spokeswoman Jacqueline Janz said. The new transit authority would be required to use the additional money to restore bus routes cut since 2001, to increase service or to reduce fares.

Planners have warned the bus system would face a major service cut without new state or local funding to replace property taxes.

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The Business Journal of Milwaukee
July 29, 2009

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, state Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) and other members of the state Legislature this week are requesting that assembly of the trains Wisconsin agreed to purchase earlier this month be done at the Super Steel plant in Milwaukee.

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By Tom Held of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee-area motorists spend far less time stuck in traffic than their counterparts in most similarly sized urban areas, but the slowdowns are costly – about $307 million in extra fuel and lost time in 2007, according to a transportation report issued Wednesday.

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Milwaukee Talkie

Television and newspaper coverage of the new Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has emphasized the $300 million annual cost of traffic congestion to Milwaukee area commuters while also acknowledging that Metro Milwaukee’s traffic conditions are tame when compared to other urban areas.

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