December 8, 2011
From: Scott Rogers, Co-Chair, West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition
The public comment period starts Monday, December 12, on the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) approval of Minnesota DOT’s draft report recommending the “River Route” via La Crosse as the “Preferred Alternative” for a future Milwaukee-Twin Cities High Speed (110 mph) Rail route. This includes open houses next week in Stillwater and Winona, Minnesota, and an online “webinar.”
Although it’s been widely reported that the route has now been decided, the process is far from over, and the public comment period is the next stage in which citizens from West Central Wisconsin can have their voices heard.
Unfortunately — in part due to Wisconsin DOT’s withdrawal from the study process in an August 31 letter from WisDOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb — MnDOT and FRA have taken data from a process designed only to narrow the selections of routes to a handful of “reasonable and feasible” lines and instead used it to determine a single final route for further study.
MnDOT has a special page on its website with information about the open houses and links to the study itself, as well as information about how to submit comments.
The Open houses are Monday, December 12, 5:00-7:00 p.m., at the Stillwater Public Library in Stillwater, MN; Tuesday, December 13, 5:00-7:00 p.m., at the Winona County History Center in Winona, MN; on as an online “webinar” on Wednesday, December 14, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. (See the website for details on how to participate.)
This study is part of the same process that started with the well-attended public information meetings in December 2010 — including one in Eau Claire which drew 200 people. The Public Participation Plan presented at those meetings promised a first phase that would reduce the number of routes to the top few “reasonable and feasible” lines, followed by another set of meetings and a public comment period to determine final route selection(s).
That stage never occurred, but MnDOT and FRA now are proposing to use the criteria from that process to pick a final route. However, our own preliminary reading of the report and its application of the data appear to support at least 5 routes which fit the “reasonable and feasible definition” — 3 of them via Eau Claire and Hudson. The West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition wrote a letter to the FRA in October when we learned the study was moving in this direction, objecting to the change in process. Wisconsin citizens are being further left out of the process, not only with our own DOT’s withdrawal, but with no public meetings being held in our state.
If you are interested in seeing West Central Wisconsin remain in consideration for future passenger rail studies, we encourage you to review the report, attend one of the meetings and/or the webinar, and to submit your own comments during the public comment period, which runs through Janaury 12. Also watch this space for more information as the Rail Coalition puts together its formal response to the process.
