Former Wisconsin governor (and long-time train advocate) Tommy! Thompson, as recently as January 2010:
Through a spokesperson, Thompson said he was “pleased” with the federal government’s commitment to expanding Wisconsin’s high speed rail infrastructure.
Former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, newly minted train opponent, in
September of this year:
Former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, a former Amtrak chairman and longtime supporter of a passenger rail line from Milwaukee to Madison, said Monday the state should lobby Congress to use $810 million for the line for Wisconsin highways instead.
That falls in line with a proposal backed by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, a Republican running for governor.
It’s a shame that instead of continuing his support for a rail line between Milwaukee and Madison – a rail line that would be part of a larger rail line linking Chicago to Minneapolis/St. Paul – Tommy Thompson has instead decided to toe the Republican Party’s line by opposing the same rail line he supported not so long ago.
H/T to The Political Environment.
He didn’t merely support this project, it is his project… silly season
Agreed. It’s sad to see Tommy Thompson reduced to being nothing more than a shill for the GOP….at least when he was governor he wasn’t afraid to support projects like rail, even if that didn’t win him any points among the GOP.
This from the man who wanted to be George W. Bush’s secretary of transportation?
If Chicago needs a link to Minneapolis that badly then the State of Illinois should be the one responsible to pay for the cost in Wisconsin of running a rail line that will never be profitable,
I’d love to see the data you have to back up your claim that a rail line between Milwaukee and Madison will never be profitable.
When you have only one route of all of their routes making money I think the data is clear. The Northeast Corridor line—Washington D.C. to Philly to New York to Boston—carried 10.9 million people in 2008 and the Acela Express made a $41 per passenger profit.
But yet The Northeast Regional, the cheaper and more popular service, lost $5 per passenger.
On a side note I don’t hate rail, our family is planning a vaction to Florida and we are going to go Amtrak since we have a number of kids traveling with us we thought the train would be a lot of fun(we hope).
so nota should we close down the airports and the highways?
Why would you want to close them down?
Looking into a round trip from Milwaukee to Orlando on Amtrak the cost for two adults for resereved seating the cheapest is $664 before tax. Then if we would like to add a room it is an additional $385 for a total of $1049 and only take 45 hours to get there.
But we could fly out of Appleton for $436 round trip and arrive in 2 to 3 hours……
Now we are thinking hey why not just rent an RV a drive! Lot less hassel then getting 13 people through an airport.
Because Nota, roads and airports are not profitable and need to be subsidized by our tax dollars. So we should close them down dont you think?