"READ 'em and WEEP" !

NewHampshire Black Bears said:
And your Right (dangerous F'n words to say to YOU)....about the fast 'filling in corridor of (from) CHI-MKE-MSP.
Makes one wonder WHY that ASSS-HOLE Walker turned down the 'choo-choo' money Barack was handing out to WI.
Uh, it's called geography. Again, the CHI-MKE-MSP corridor doesn't go thru MSN:

capture__200316.jpg


The grand plan was to reroute the MSP corridor to go via MSN, and that would have added about 20-30 minutes to the MKE-MSN segment, even at higher speeds, and would have cut Columbus from the rail network entirely. It's also questionable how the additional time would have hurt business on the MKE-MSP segment.

Madison to Milwaukee already has rail between them, and hasn't been able to support service since the mid 1950's. Before then, there were several trips a day on two different railroads. The Milwaukee Road kept a single trip per day in place up until Amtrak's startup in 1971.

The state has had over 40 years to start up commuter rail between the two cities, but never could make a business case for it.

And then, BAM! The business case for HSR was created, containing more fantasy than most Democrat proposals: when Doyle went after Obamafunds, they were estimating almost 2400 riders per day between MKE & MSN, including thru-riders to MSP, and six round trips (going up to 10 round trips).

Put otherwise, Doyle's fantasy train was expecting to equal the ridership on the Hiawatha Service between CHI & MKE, which has grown over a 40 year period.

Do the math and tell me with a straight face that a college town is going to generate the same number of travelers as there are between CHI and MKE...

Then, consider that the routing they were proposing was 15 miles longer than driving difference (90 vs. 75 miles). 67% of the projected traffic was going to come from drivers choosing the train. That's tree-hugger fantasy math at its best...

Call Scott Walker what you will for his stance on collective bargaining, but ditching the Talgos and giving back the $810M in funding was the smartest move he could make.

Had Wisconsin gone forward, they would have still been on the hook for a minimum of $7.5M per year in operating subsidies. The brunt of that money would have gone to (possibly non-union) workers at Talgo, who would have done all the maintenance on those trainsets. Talgo doesn't trust Amtrak to maintain their trains, and that's the same deal in Oregon and Washington from what I'm told. The operating subsidies could have been even higher if ridership didn't materialize.

Walker tried to have those funds applied towards upgrading CHI-MKE, but DOT refused. In the end, turning down the Federal moneywas the right thing to do. The state didn't have the money to subsidize a fantasy. It's almost as bad as the disaster called California HSR. That, too, will hopefully die before the first shovel of dirt is turned.


Lest anyone think that I'm against passenger rail...

On the map above, look closer at the MKE-GRB corridor. There's been a longer standing business case for two or three trains a day on that route.

So, why does that one make sense?... Notice all the other population centers along the corridor? Those are the characteristics of a growth corridor: slightly dispersed cities with decent populations, and a greater likelihood of generating traffic across a longer length of haul. MKE-MSN had suburbs between them.

WDOT has said they might be able to do something to GRB between 2019 and 2030. Seems to me there's far more justification for that routing than there ever was for the pork-barrel boondoggle to try and put HSR in place between MKE and MSN.
 
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  • #17
Well Eric, you've got me agreeing with you on almost every point.
MSN/MKE should be a commuter 'run.
Green Bay - MKE - CHI will almost certainly become a mirror image (on Amtrak) like CHI - GRR . (that baby is nearly full every day, and not cheap either)
MKE/MSP will become a 'higher-speed' trip, over the present route, and more frequency to boot.
(That CHI/MKE - La Cross - Msp area has Enourmous groth potential)
The Big " A " will be ever ready to 'lend a helping hand'  (MORE Union Jobs)
Finally, Walkers lucky he's running in an 'off-year' election, because if it were '16 (and the F'n REPLUGS will have NO-ONE winnable on the national ticket), walker would be burnt 'toast' !
 
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  • #20
Dog Wonder said:
Take a train and see how your money is spent.
 
You know, dog,..............It's such a PERFECT scenario (meaning NUMB-NUTS 'southwindBAG, and the ol' BEAR).
 
That Dopey Red Neck goes to work and pays Federal Tax to AMTRAK, so I can get my $30 bucks an hour PLUS all the OT I can handle,......................Then, The DUMB..SHIIT pays into the SS System, so I can get my $1,700 a month(and Climbing)..for the rest of the ol' Bears Life  !
I got a birthday next month, and the following year I'll be..." 70 " (jesus christ,........where the " F " did all the years go) ?
 
Hey, No Matter..
With the ' soft UNION touch' I've got now, and my GOOD health holds up, I'll keep working just for SPITE, so 'you-know-WHO' can keep my Subsidies  $$$$ flowing   !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Only in the good ol USA.
 
STAY HEALTHY 'southwindBAG !
All DONATIONS gratefully accepted !
 
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha   !!!!!!!!!!!! 
 
NewHampshire Black Bears said:
 
You know, dog,..............It's such a PERFECT scenario (meaning NUMB-NUTS 'southwindBAG, and the ol' BEAR).
 
That Dopey Red Neck goes to work and pays Federal Tax to AMTRAK, so I can get my $30 bucks an hour PLUS all the OT I can handle,......................Then, The DUMB..SHIIT pays into the SS System, so I can get my $1,700 a month(and Climbing)..for the rest of the ol' Bears Life  !
I got a birthday next month, and the following year I'll be..." 70 " (jesus christ,........where the " F " did all the years go) ?
 
Hey, No Matter..
With the ' soft UNION touch' I've got now, and my GOOD health holds up, I'll keep working just for SPITE, so 'you-know-WHO' can keep my Subsidies  $$$$ flowing   !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Only in the good ol USA.
 
STAY HEALTHY 'southwindBAG !
All DONATIONS gratefully accepted !
 
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha   !!!!!!!!!!!! 
lol this is certainly something to be proud of
 
Bears, don't you know where your paycheck comes from?....

Routes under 750 miles are funded by the states it operates in. That's pretty much everything north of NYC.

Unless you happen to be working trains 48/49 (Lake Shore), 63/64 (Maple Leaf), or the Acelas, then your paycheck is coming from the state you're arse is sitting in. Not me.

Social Security? Sure, you win on that ponzi scheme. Be sure to brag to RTB and his kids about how they're paying into a system they won't benefit from.
 
Service on the Adirondack is financed primarily through funds made available by the New York State Department of Transportation.

Empire service (except for Trains 48 and 49) is supported by funds made available by the New York State Department of Transportation.

The Ethan Allen Express is financed primarily through funds made available by the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and the New York State Department of Transportation.

The Vermonter is financed primarily through funds made available by the Vermont Agency of Transportation, the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Northeast Regional service within Virginia is funded in part through grants made available by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Service between Springfield and New Haven is financed primarily through funds made available by the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation

The Carolinian services are primarily funded through funds made available by the State of North Carolina.
When the State of New York ultimately goes bankrupt, I'd guess that a lot of that state funded service (Empire, Ethan Allen, Adirondack) will be cut way back or evaporate entirely if it isn't cash positive.
 
Dog Wonder said:
Should Gummint get out of the air traffic control bidness, too?
You should get out of the comedy business.........you suck at it!
 
 
NewHampshire Black Bears said:
You know, dog,..............It's such a PERFECT scenario (meaning NUMB-NUTS 'southwindBAG, and the ol' BEAR).
 
That Dopey Red Neck goes to work and pays Federal Tax to AMTRAK, so I can get my $30 bucks an hour PLUS all the OT I can handle,......................Then, The DUMB..SHIIT pays into the SS System, so I can get my $1,700 a month(and Climbing)..for the rest of the ol' Bears Life  !
I got a birthday next month, and the following year I'll be..." 70 " (jesus christ,........where the " F " did all the years go) ?
 
Hey, No Matter..
With the ' soft UNION touch' I've got now, and my GOOD health holds up, I'll keep working just for SPITE, so 'you-know-WHO' can keep my Subsidies  $$$$ flowing   !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Only in the good ol USA.
 
STAY HEALTHY 'southwindBAG !
All DONATIONS gratefully accepted !
 
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha   !!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep! You ought to be very proud, living off other peoples money!
And your right..........only in America! Home of the "Entitlement Crowd"!
 
eolesen said:
Bears, don't you know where your paycheck comes from?....

Routes under 750 miles are funded by the states it operates in. That's pretty much everything north of NYC.

Unless you happen to be working trains 48/49 (Lake Shore), 63/64 (Maple Leaf), or the Acelas, then your paycheck is coming from the state you're arse is sitting in. Not me.

Social Security? Sure, you win on that ponzi scheme. Be sure to brag to RTB and his kids about how they're paying into a system they won't benefit from.
 

When the State of New York ultimately goes bankrupt, I'd guess that a lot of that state funded service (Empire, Ethan Allen, Adirondack) will be cut way back or evaporate entirely if it isn't cash positive.
so what you're saying E is that when Bear stops by Micky D's on the way to work for coffee he should thank that minimum wage guy fr making it possible for him to scam 30 an hour?
 
Yep. And while he drives to work dodging potholes large enough to swallow a VW bug, he can do so knowing that instead of the state fixing the roads, they're paying his arse to sit and wait for the 50 or 60 people who might be boarding the train that day...
 
10 states with the highest average annual tax burden

1. New York, $9,718
2. California, $9,509
3. Nebraska, $9,450
4. Connecticut, $9,099
5. Illinois, $9,006
6. Wisconsin, $8,975
7. Vermont, $8,838
8. New Jersey, $8,830
9. Iowa, $8,788
10. Maine, $8,622


10 states with the lowest average annual tax burden:

1. Wyoming, $2,365
2. Alaska, $2,791
3. Nevada, $3,370
4. Florida, $3,648
5. South Dakota, $3,766
6. Washington (state), $3,823
7. Texas, $5,193
8. Delaware, $5,195
9. North Dakota, $5,588
10. New Mexico, $5,822
NE and IA make the high-tax list because they're lightly populated, have little tourism or natural resources, and tax rates are higher because there are fewer people to tax. But, those two states also take honors in having some of the lowest deficits in the nation (along with UT, ND, and WY all of whom have energy resources to tax instead of the citizenry).
 
Yep! You ought to be very proud, living off other peoples money!
And your right..........only in America! Home of the "Entitlement Crowd"!
Well blame that on the liberal who said "Ask not what you could do for your country, but ask what you're country can do for you!"

It was all downhill from there.
 

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