Posted Mar 15, 2012, 9:57 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Posts: 1,513
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The latest on Wisconsin's rail train wreck:
Quote:
Legislators buck Walker, reject train maintenance base
By Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel
March 14, 2012
Over the objections of Gov. Scott Walker's administration, a key legislative committee voted Wednesday against building a new train maintenance base - a decision that officials warned could mean mothballing two brand-new trains and walking away from the $71.8 million already invested in them.
The Legislature's Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee voted, 12-4, along party lines not to borrow $2.5 million to continue planning a $55 million to $63 million permanent maintenance base in Milwaukee.
That base would have serviced two new trains built in Milwaukee by Spanish-owned Talgo Inc. for Amtrak's Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line.
Immediately after the vote, Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb issued a statement saying, "Today's decision to not provide funding for the permanent rail maintenance facility means that the state will be unable to put the Talgo trains into revenue service. We hope to work cooperatively with Talgo to resolve any outstanding contractual issues in a mutually satisfactory way. Existing rail service on the Hiawatha route, using Amtrak equipment, will continue without interruption."
But Talgo Vice President Nora Friend said the new trains still could enter service later this year, using the temporary maintenance base that has been set up at Talgo's north side manufacturing plant. She said that would give the state and the company until 2014 to work out a solution for a permanent base.
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Link for the rest: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepo...142671085.html
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