Invest in Rail
Our next governor, Scott Walker, has made no bones about his desire to kill the federally-funded high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee. He wants to spend the money on roads and bridges instead. A recent editorial by UW lecturer Bill Howard makes the same case.
I wish Governor Walker were more concerned with our economy and infrastructure than just saying “No” to anything proposed by a Democrat. If he were, he’d understand that the rail corridor is actually good for our roads and bridges, as well as our larger economy.
What’s often been lost in the debate is that most of the trains on the line won’t be carrying people — they’ll be carrying freight. Freight that is currently being carried by trucks. Heavy trucks, trucks that damage and wear down the very roads and bridges he’s so concerned about.
Getting that freight off the highways and into freight cars will go a long way toward protecting our road and bridge infrastructure over the next 50 years than any short term fixes could ever do.
Currently, freight trains in the corridor between Milwaukee and Madison plod along at ten miles per hour. Upgrading the rail beds will allow freight to move six times faster, at 60 miles per hour. This will obviously result in improved service, better fuel efficiency, and fewer emissions into our atmosphere.
Safety of freight transport is another important consideration. In the not-too-distant future, much of the freight moving around the state will be biomass to fuel our next generation of power plants. While it’s a lot safer and more efficient than other fuels, biomass is not exactly the kind of thing you want spilling onto the Interstate at rush hour.
In 2009, nearly 6,000 collisions or crashes involved freight trucks — that’s more than 16 every day. Only 41 crashes involved trains. This is not to say that truck drivers are unsafe or that trucks are inherently dangerous, only that a truck carrying toxic or dangerous material is a lot more likely to dump that material than a train is.
Our current rail infrastructure does need safety improvements, though, at a price of about $20 million. That is not negotiable — it’s going to happen. The only question is who pays the bill — local cities and counties, or federal stimulus funds. I’d much rather it come out of that $810 million from the federal government than out of the pockets of local taxpayers.
Traffic headaches at rail crossings is another common but ill-informed criticism of rail. Passenger trains are not the issue here, though. It’s the long freight trains lurching along at five miles an hour that cause the longest delays. These long, slow trains are not going away (in fact there will be many more), and they’re not going to get any faster on the current tracks. Investing in the Madison to Milwaukee rail corridor will allow these long trains to breeze through intersections in half the time and will reduce the noise associated with antiquated crossing and tracks.
The safe, efficient transport of freight is of paramount importance to our economy. So is the preservation of our roads and bridges. Support for the rail project remains strong, and it’s not dead by any means. I hope Scott Walker will listen to the people who know, and make the correct decision based on what’s best for Wisconsin.
Scott McDonell serves as Chair of the Dane County Board of Supervisors and is a candidate for Dane County Executive.
It appears Scott Walker is only interested in letting all the large trucks continue to destroy our roads. Has he taken into consideration how much that costs us taxpayers; let alone all the construction hindering travel for everyone? High speed freight rail is needed! Rail will, of course, eliminate jobs for truckers. However, maybe the companies ordering the freight will need to add trucks and drivers to deliver their freight from rail to their businesses. So, in essence, some of the truck drivers could be hired and paid by them. Support high speed rail…it is long overdue.