(The following appeared on the Journal of Commerce website on March 15, 2011.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled over $20 million in state grants and about $5 million in loans to short line freight railroads and shippers to upgrade rail infrastructure in the state.
Much of the money will go into improvements on state-owned tracks used under lease by private operator Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, and for the state’s Department of Transportation to help buy some track in Milwaukee from Wisconsin & Southern so that a consortium of counties can keep operating it to connect with other rail lines.
After his election last fall, Walker vowed to halt a federal grant-funded project to develop passenger train service in a freight corridor between Milwaukee and Madison, saying it would cost the state budget too much in the long run. He tried to get the Obama administration to let him apply the $800 million grant to other state needs, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in December instead redirected that money and a $400 million grant that Ohio rejected to passenger rail programs in other states.
The full story appears on the Journal of Commerce website.