NCC1701-That would make too much sense and wouldn't allow for the political grandstanding of the "HIGH-SPEED" moniker.......Like the other poster said and I said months ago, if any rail money is spent it would be best spent on freight rail but theres no opportunity for political grandstanding with that either...........oh, well...

Once in, options include pork spending, lobbyist hand outs (TRIP, GOLF,PARTY'S.......) or just plain theft. Plenty of theft a few years back.
Then the pity party hand outs to keep thieving investment companies afloat.

The money will be spent if not in Wisconsin then elsewhere and stopping the spending on bogus projects has to come from the top down. That is the problem with all of our public officials who waste taxpayer money...it's allocated for specific projects so it will be spent by someone. Elected officials have to bring home dollars for constituents or come election time they will be ousted for the next talking head who promises voters the world. Think back to last week and just before the election and all the TV ads. Walker, Barrett, Johnson and Feingold are all full of BS. The process goes like this...tell voters what is needed to get elected and then you do what the party asks of you to gain influence within the system and in time you'll head important committees such as Armed Services, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Homeland Security etc. As the head of a committee your influence over federal spending and legislative procedure gives you the power to put earmarks into various bills and bring home the pork spending to your district typically makes your constituents re-elect you. Not always as seen recently. Hopefully the tide is turning against runaway pork spending.

You betcha!

Okay all you liberal whiners, this isn't about jobs, it's about an exorbitantly priced train that we don't need and don't want, and it would cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin a huge amount of tax resources. Methinks there will be other jobs working on the state's infrastructure. Our roads and bridges need to be repaired/replaced, and there will be plenty of jobs doing that. All you whiner libs need to put your heads in the sand for a few years. Wisconsin will be better. Doyle and his minions have spent wildly and made commitments that we cannot afford. It will take time, but Governor Walker will make this state a place that we all want to live and work. Obammamma has had 2 years and nothing is better. We shall see a better Wisconsin in 2 years under Scott Walker!

Janesvillecomments -- I couldn't have said it better.

Sad Republicans....can't stand the fact that you have won the election with a man who is going to do what he said he would do? Just shows that all the campaign blabber is just blabber....voters only hear what they want to hear and then are shocked when something different actually happens. Hang on tight, we hadn't hit the bottom yet. We were swirling around the big white bowl on the way down. No jobs - no recovery - no chance at everyone returning to the financial place they were at before the last Republican....we are getting lower and closer to going down the drain. Better practice your Chinese and study up on the Communist way of life..........

Let's just sit and "p" and "m" about everything. Maybe we could turn wisconsin into the don't walk at all State. See "big" signs of that already.

PJGnyc, we ARE a fly-over/drive-thru state. Instead of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, let's develop lower and more reasonable expectations of what we expect our legislators in Madison should be doing and lower those legislators expectations of what they can do and how much they can spend doing it.

We need to repair our infrastructure, especially our roads and bridges, as the nearly daily reports of problems with I-90 between Beloit and Madison clearly illustrate. We should be investing in redeveloping freight rail to save wear and tear on our highway system. Evansville farmers shouldn't have to dump their corn in Stoughton Trailer's parking lot until Wisconsin & Southern Railroad can ship it.

We do not have the population density (nor should we try to develop it) or destination infrastructure to support high-speed rail. If we are going to spend money on railroads in Wisconsin, why not retrain Stoughton Trailer workers to build grain cars and subsidize loans to existing railroads to buy them? We have corn to move, not people. It would be nice if freight trains could chug along from Evansville to Milwaukee or Chicago at higher speeds and with larger loads. http://www.wsorrailroad.com/infrastructu...

In spite of some urban sprawl around Madison and big-city decay in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a rural, agricultural, state. We have a lot of land suitable for tourists who like to hunt, fish, camp and boat. We have some seasonal recreation - the Dells and Lake Michigan in the summer, snow skiing (when it's cold enough and we get enough snow) and ice fishing in the winter. We are a big dairy state and have some lumber/pulp wood to export. We grow a lot of food. Let's promote our agriculture and tourist trade and improve the infrastructure to support those industries. End of story.

sannio, the LHC in Switzerland which is about 1/3 as powerful was built for 4.4 billion and it was paid for with money from 80 or 90 countries. It goes to show that projects can come in at budget and generate significant revenues for host countries if managed properly. It seems the USA science community has this "not invented here" syndrome where we need to do it all. One notable exception is the space station, but I'm not sure just exactly how much other countries have funded that.

no gm yet in janesville??????

I am still wondering who will ride this train to Milwaukee? Then what? Rent a car to get around or? take a bus??
Seems very time consuming to get to destination on either end.
Where would you park in Madison to take the train to Milwaukee.
Not something I would ever do.
Not even if there was no fare charged.

and maybe Mike Sheridan can spend his free time on convincing his old employer that the UAW will help them out if they open the plant again. the unions killed the rail industry in this country and they have nearly killed off the automotive industry too. when the work conditions were awful and the hours long maybe unions had a place in the equation but now all they do is perpetuate their own existence at the expense of the rank and file. How many high ranking local UAW officials who workded at the PLANT are out of work today? asked and answered thank you!!!

No one rides trains anymore? I still ride the train from Harvard, IL into Chicago. No matter what time of the week, it's awfully full for nobody riding trains anymore.

I want a new truck, but only when I can AFFORD one. WI or the taxpayers cant afford this right now. Federal stimulus money is still taxpayers money! There are higher priorities right now.

no one rides trains anymore... http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/factsheets/WIS...

"He then attended Marquette University from 1986 to 1990, but dropped out during his senior year with a 2.59 GPA"...., that's Governer "Drop Out" to you !.. makes for a great headline: "Scott Walker Opposes Stem Cell Research: College Dropout Tells UW Scientists How to Do Their Job" http://faithfulprogressive.blogspot.com/... "drop out tells other to drop out": http://fairlyconservative.com/2010/08/15...

Gonefishin and DrTalk=

I do have my facts straight. The 810 million CANNOT be used for anything but the train system, so little Scotty boys wants won't matter. We don't use it for the train system, then we don't get it and it goes to, say, New York.

I have more of an education than your governor elect...who never graduated from college, so in other words, iros a hacer punetas, ques sois unos grandes perullos.

So Rex, you don't want Wisconsin's environment to develop as per other States are doing, but expect money people to invest in this wind blown red barn environment, What a joker you are.
Residents of Wisconsin might just as well bring out the folding chairs and sit watching Interstate traffic going to and from the Dells.
Oh! and by the way, how much money from that illinois vacation land stays in Wisconsin? Maybe the other old republican "Tommy" can answer that one.

that blowing sound is republicans chasing jobs away from wisconsin.. stem cell research will be next... 8 years of wasting money dumping bombs on a desert and a mountain and cutting taxes to the Uber-Rich, can not be completly reversed in two years. stock market is back. jobs are already coming back

you'll be wishing you could take a train when gas gets above $4 a gallon again, because it will, suburban car luvin' Americans or not.

PJGnyc,
Get your facts straight. Scott Walker never said he didn't want the $800 million. He just doesn't want the so-called "high speed" train. He wants to use the money for other infrastructure projects.

Take note ya'll--the Governor-elect of New York is already asking the feds to take the $810 million that Governor-elect Walker has said he doesn't want.

Nice job GOP. Wow. Please, time-warp me to 2012!!!

Not only does this nix the infrastructure investment that is needed during this time of low economic activity and low bond pricing, this eliminates what could have been both a driver for Wisconsin's business climate and a future center of production for a 21st century industry. The Republican vision for Wisconsin is taking shape!

Anybody remember the Superconducting Super Collider?
"Congress was told the project could be completed for $4.4 billion".
...
"By 1993, the cost projection exceeded $12 billion."
...
"The project was canceled in 1993."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconduc...

Such vitriol from all sides.

The argument that the train project would be a drain on future tax payers is true. However, the government already spends on projects and then has to support them long into the future as well. Infrastructure that is constantly in need of repair. For example, they spend BILLIONS on building roads, ports, highways, dams, and bridges. Oh, and the mega billions the government spends on building battleships, tanks, troop carriers, and airplanes--guess what, the people have to support those long into the future as well.

Face it people, the train would provide immediate jobs, and then SPUR economic development--for example, small businesses that would sprout up around train stops to support the needs of the riders. Again--just one example.

And the jobs Talgo was planning on establishing in Wisconsin were just a start...they would have grown more if more train infrastructure would be supported.

People, we cannot continue to be satisfied being a fly-over/drive-thru state. If we don't get into the game, and support the very vital connection between Minneapolis and Chicago, we will never EVER be economic players in this country. Get used to being known for beer, milk, cheese, cranberries, ginseng, and not much else.

And to let you know, building the train will EXTEND the usefull life of your precious highways by taking cars off of them. When you think about "return on investment" the train is a good deal.

CHOO CHOO CHOO. BRING THE TRAIN!!!!

OK?
Who is going to ride this??? $50-70 trip fropm downtown Madison to downtown Milwaukee???
Riders? Anyone?

$810 million for 40 temporary jobs? I'm sorry lefty liberals....we're not Europe....we're suburbanized....we will NEVER be a train nation..especially in the midwest where everything is spread out....at no time has a high speed rail ever made financial sense....now what does make sense is to make I-90 from beloit to the dells a toll way and make the flatlanders pay up for cluttering our interstate!!!

Wisconsin doesn't get factories to build new plants due to labor laws like card check. When this state becomes a right-to-work state, then we will get corporations to seriously consider locating here.

"You want to restore jobs to this state you do it the old fashioned way, by encouraging private businesses to invest their own money, not taxpayer money..."

Wow rexkramer, you really seem to have a handle on capitalism and job growth. Can you explain what a TIF district is?
Currently, Wisconsin offers a number of tax incentives for corporations and other businesses to locate or expand their operations within the state. Do you think Gov-elect Walker will eliminate those tax incentives and force businesses to operate "the old fashioned way"?

mespl, Seriously? "It's going to cost more to shut it down since construction has begun than it is to operate it for years come?" YEARS of operation? Seriously? "Well, we've already spent a little bit of bad money, we might as well spend a whole lot more to justify it."

That's wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to begin. We'd all be better off if both parties stopped the "gotta get mine" philosophy. Please don't ever run for public office.

Big deal, What about Janesville getting some Jobs here. Walker is stopping a wasteful project that will be a maintenance burden to the state

No choo choo, no jobs in Wisconsin ever again. No business will come here because we don't have a choo choo. Absurd overreaction.

Everything is so darned easy when you are making promises on the campaign trail. Why can't real life be that easy?

I'm not a fan of this train, and wouldn't shed a tear if it was canceled. However, I though electing Republicans was supposed to eliminate that "business uncertainty" people are crying about. I guess not.

Rex: That money is going to be spent, if not on a train here then on a train in another state. So lets stop now with the whole save the money bs, the money is gone. It is going to cost more to shut it down considering construction has begun that it would cost to operate it for years to come.

"You want to restore jobs to this state you do it the old fashioned way..."

Billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to Halliburton?

"Walker is already costing Wisconsin businesses close to a billion dollars in lost revenue and he hasn't even taken his oath."
>
Ah, that would be close to a billion dollars of taxpayer money that this country can't afford to spend, and once the train to nowhere is built it would be a constant suckhole for the taxpayers of WI to keep filling with their tax dollars. I love how the only way the liberals look to create jobs is by creating more taxpayer funded public sector jobs. This train has been a crooked sham of a boondoggle ever since day one. You want to restore jobs to this state you do it the old fashioned way, by encouraging private businesses to invest their own money, not taxpayer money, and grow their businesses and employ more people, who then contribute to the economy. It's a principle called "capitalism". I know that's become a four letter word in the era of hope and change, but guess what, it works.

Based on the fact that it was a "no bid" contract, if this project ever goes forward it should be open for bids.

Here we go. The new governor promised to stop the train, but to do so will cost jobs that he promised to bring to Wisconsin. What to do, what to do.......