DERAILED.

The federal government recently bestowed a great gift upon the residents of Wisconsin: A sum of cash in excess of $800,000,000 (that's a lot of zeroes!) to be used toward building a "high-speed" train, which will travel between Milwaukee and Madison. This "free" money was the fourth largest amount given among all states with only California, Florida and Illinois netting more. This would be a good time to mention that historically speaking rail projects almost always cost more than projected.

The project would have enough funds to establish a train line with speeds of up to 79 miles per hour, but when considering three various stops along the route, a trip from Madison to Milwaukee crawls in at around 58 miles per hour. Interstate 94, which follows the same route, has an obvious speed advantage.

It also costs approximately $15 or less in fuel for a vehicle to make this trip on the highway. A ticket to ride the train will come with a hefty charge of approximately $25. The face price on the ticket does not include the $125 in costs to Wisconsin taxpayers for each person riding the railway when considering maintenance and operation costs along with government estimates of the expected number of users.

There is also a public transportation alternative to keeping personal vehicles off the road called Badger Bus. This company is a privately-owned enterprise, which has six different buses currently making the trek along the proposed "high-speed" rail route. The fare is $17.50 and the bus makes the trip between Madison and Milwaukee in ten minutes less than the proposed train would traverse that distance. When considering government estimates, the presence of this railway only relieves 2.6 percent of cars and trucks from the interstate.

A large-scale project such as this will undoubtedly create some short-term construction jobs. If the plan in place goes through, the job numbers will peak at over 4,000 temporary jobs in 2012. These jobs are short lived and eventually around 55 permanent positions will be offered to operate and maintain the route according to the federal government's projections.

Considering all these cost implications maybe this proposed route is meant as a long-term environmental initiative. State estimates suggest that carbon emissions could be reduced by around 7,000 tons as a result of this project. This equates to a price tag of $9,700 per ton of CO2 saved. Carbon offset credits cost between $6-28 for each ton.  This looks to be a very cost ineffective way to save the earth.

Furthermore, a 2010 study by Berkeley – Berkeley! – says that high-speed rail lines must run for 71 years with at least half occupancy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a point that offsets emissions created constructing the train line. This doesn't account for the greenhouse gas produced by the diesel engines in the trains during that time period. It's quite obvious that environmental benefits from the "high-speed" rail will not be seen for a very long time.

If this money is not used for "high-speed" rail it will need to be returned to the federal government. Good. All the costs that come along with this project in the long run make it irresponsible to spend the money for the sake of spending it. Maybe a good alternative would be to fund a dozen new bus lines for Badger Bus at a fraction of the cost.

Let's join the majority of Wisconsinites who oppose this initiative.