Quote:
Originally Posted by wiphan
If the high speed rail can't sustain itself without government and or tax payer funding why would you do it?
|
Walker is in the minority of that opinion that those federal funds for creating jobs, improving infrastructure, and doing all the upgrades and repairs your current lines need, and having additional paid for rail service wasn't worth it.
Well, until right after he turned the funds down, then he immediately petitioned to get the federal funds again.
So he apparently loves federal funds to pay for your trains. Just not when it's called what he campaigned against.
But Walker's in charge now. His opinion counts, not your previous legislature and governor that thought it was good for Wisconsin. Oh, well, Wisconsin's loss is other states' gain.
Too bad you guys now have to pay millions and millions over and above your budget for what the feds would have given you with the grant, to do your necessary repairs and upkeep on what you have now. In addition to the extra. So now you are even more in the hole on an old, needing-expensive-updates rail system.
Guess Walkers budget is no longer balanced.
Quote:
Walker ... campaigned against the 110-mph route and after his election in November opposed it as governor-elect. The federal government then yanked the funds.
After the original grant was withdrawn, the Walker administration unsuccessfully sought $213.3 million in federal money earlier this year for Hiawatha upgrades, including additional trains, retrofitting the Talgo plant as a permanent maintenance base and improving the tracks between the plant and the downtown Amtrak station.
The costs of building and equipping both the temporary and permanent maintenance bases would have been covered by the $810 million federal grant.
That grant also would have paid for more train cars and locomotives, which would have been serviced at a $52 million permanent base in Madison.
|