Thursday, January 28, 2010

Passenger rail finally coming to Madison

Yes, yes, and a thousand times yes! Mayor Dave broke the news late last night via his blog:
High speed rail is coming to Madison. President Barack Obama's White House made the announcement Wednesday night. The Madison to Milwaukee route is the fourth largest of the many projects announced as part of the $8 billion investment in rail.
I could not be more ecstatic. On the selfish side, this means far easier access to Milwaukee, which I just don't visit often enough, without the headache of maneuvering their insane interchange system. I can sit back, relax, read a book or just watch the scenery fly by on my way to museums, festivals, concerts, meetings and more. Of course, it will be another few years before the system is actually up and running, but I don't plan on going anywhere.

On the less selfish side, I know people who currently commute for work from here to Milwaukee (or vice versa, or from some town in between, etc.) and I can't imagine what an incredible boon this will be for them. Plus there are the jobs this project will help to create, and whatever economic benefits form down the line as a result of the increased connection between cities.

I'll have more about this development, plus some thoughts on the recent State Supreme Court decision allowing judges to stay on cases that involve their major campaign donors--and more more more!--in the next Emily's Post blog on Monday over at The Daily Page.


(photo by thomas.merton on Flickr)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

how awesome would it bee if there was a way to take your bike on the rail too! you could take an afternoon trip to MKE, and ride around some really neat parts of the city, then head back on the train! i'm super interested in this personally, as it would provide a way to get to MKE for shows at clubs (the rave, etc), and get back to madison without driving at 1am. that is assuming the line has runs that go that late. i haven't read into it to see the details yet. now if only we had something to get from the west to the east side of madison other than the isthmus and dreaded rush hour beltline.

Peter Patau said...

Just came across this on Google. How sad and poignant now, looking back through the awful Walker years.

Emily said...

MG - No. Kidding. Every time it comes up I still get sad/bitter.

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