Commuter rail for Milwaukee?

Commuter rail between Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha is being discussed again. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it will cost $237 million to start. The plan proposes 14 round trips on weekdays and 7 on weekends and holidays. The fares would be around $10 one way, and buses and shuttles would theoretically take riders from the train stips to jobs and other locations.

Statistics on the proposed rail include:

• It is estimated that there would be 1.43 million rides of the train per year. (That’s less than 4,000 rides per day.)
• Operating costs would be $14.7 million a year
• Farres collections are estimated at only $3.8 million per year.

An awful lot of taxpayer money is potentially going to be spent on a rail line that may not even be needed.

• Who is going to ride this train?
• Who decided that we need this commuter rail?
• Why do we want to run a train that can’t even come close to covering its costs through ridership?
• Is the supposed “economic development” near the rail stations going to be new development that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred, or is it just a shift in location of development that will probably happen anyway?

Related posts:

1. Even more taxes proposed for Southeastern Wisconsin
2. Unwanted, unneeded, (to be) unused rail line still being pushed… And lies to help push it
3. Only in Eugene Kane’s world
4. The idiots in Milwaukee government have finally won
5. I guess government officials don’t have to follow through on promises