Putting the cost into perspective
Monday, Dec 13, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Chuck Sweeny’s latest column supports the idea of running a new Amtrak line through Rockford. That isn’t really a surprise. Chuck writes for the Rockford paper, after all. But he tries to put things in perspective for all those who constantly scream that rail spending is an extravagant waste of cash…
Let’s put that $26.2 million [to upgrade tracks for Chicago-to-Rockford passenger rail] in perspective: The state will spend $30 million in 2011 to remake just one mile of Illinois 2 into a four-lane, divided highway.
Seems pretty darned prudent.
* Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Governor-elect Scott Walker continues to get hammered by his state’s media for giving up $810 million in high-speed rail money. Some of that cash is going to Illinois, and nothing peeves the cheeseheads more than when we get something and they don’t. From the LaCrosse Tribune…
Even you, Illinois, our cursed neighbors to the south: You’re getting $42.3 million from Wisconsin.
Scott Walker is thoroughly pleased to hand you this money, courtesy of the taxpayers of Wisconsin.
Walker wouldn’t listen to the feds. He wouldn’t listen to business leaders. He wouldn’t listen to transportation experts. He didn’t even have the courtesy to respond to repeated efforts by Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz to discuss the matter because, of course, Cieslewicz is a Democrat and mayor of the state’s capitol and second-largest city. Why bother.
When Walker promised during his campaign to create 250,000 jobs, we absurdly assumed that he meant to create them in Wisconsin. We didn’t realize he would provide such an economic boost for other states.
* By the way, the cash we’re getting from Wisconsin will go at least partly to upgrade capacity on the rail line between Dwight and Joliet…
“We are still working with USDOT to finalize details, but we hope to be able to put the funding toward capacity enhancements to the Dwight-Joliet portion of the Chicago-St. Louis corridor,” Josh Kauffman, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said Friday.
- wordslinger - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 9:23 am:
If any of you’ve endured the delays and lousy conditions of Amtrak service, you’ll come to the conclusions it’s time to fish or cut bait on the whole proposition of intercity passenger rail.
The investment is not only prudent, it’s wise. That’s why most developed countries do it.
Anything that reduces the need to pour toxic gasoline and jet fuel fumes into the air is A-Ok with me.
And for those who argue that roads are maintained solely by gasoline taxes, I’d suggest you add into the equation the billions of dollars we spend every year propping up the medieval despots in Saudi and Kuwait.
Unless you think we’re doing that because they share our values and commitment to freedom and democracy.
Who knows? Maybe someday the president of the United States won’t feel obligated to hold hands with or bow to the Saudi king out of fear they’ll cut off the spigot and wreck our economy as they have in the past.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 1:07 pm:
What happened to all the antis from last week?
- wordslinger - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 1:11 pm:
–What happened to all the antis from last week?–
Stuck in traffic?
- Bill - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 1:43 pm:
I sure wish I could rely on AMTRAK to get me home from the patch in less than 8 hours. I’m not asking for high speed rail just that they run on time. I don’t know why anyone would want to go to Rockford but I guess a train would make it easier.
- Cincinnatus - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 1:47 pm:
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 1:07 pm:
:What happened to all the antis from last week?”
Too many deleted posts…
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:07 pm:
Actually, there probably weren’t enough deletions.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:08 pm:
===in less than 8 hours.===
Avoid the Texas Eagle like the plague. There are just too many opportunities for delay between Dallas, TX and Springfield.
- Northsider - Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 3:43 pm:
Outstanding point by Chuck Sweeney, and one upon which “Jobs Killer” Walker and the dupes who voted for him should choke. It would have cost Wisconsin less per year to maintain the Madison Hiawatha extension than to expand their highways (which, given the onset of Peak Oil, is just paving a dead-end road anyway). Too bad for them. Now if we can just land the Talgo America assembly plant…
Ironically, when I rode the Texas Eagle home from Dallas earlier this year, it was late coming into Dallas, but slid into Union Station right on the advertised time. My only complaints were about the St. Louis station — which is shoehorned in underneath a highway ramp (natch!), and the industrial wasteland through which the train rolls on its way to the river crossing. Definitely NOT St. Louis’ finer face.