Rep. Fred Clark of Baraboo joined the students from the UW-Madison chapter of WISPIRG, a public policy advocacy group, but the audience was only a Canadian Pacific work crew, a representative of U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s office and a reporter. The students with homemade signs listing the benefits of high speed rail and a map of proposed routes of the high speed rail did not let the lack of an audience dim their enthusiasm or curb their pleas in support of high speed trains. The track workers who declined to be identified said they supported high speed rail.

Devon Trezise, of Milwaukee, said the students are making 10 stops along what may be a future high speed rail line. "We need a new solution to building highways," he said, adding the highway building was costly and sometimes unnecessary. A better way would be the high speed rail line between Chicago and St. Paul that would grow the economy and reduce dependence on oil.

A high speed rail line would create 10,000 new jobs plus the thousands who would be put to work during construction, Trezise said. According to WISPIRG’s research, a high speed rail train would create 235 new jobs in the Dells and increase property values here by about $17 million, Trezise said.

Japan has had high speed rail lines for decades, and they have not caused deaths, he said. With high speed rail, people could avoid airport delays and spend less money and time traveling, Trezise said. He also said the high speed rail would make smaller towns more attractive to college graduate because it would make them more livable and accessible.

Clark said a person can get on the Empire Builder train in the Dells and ride it to Seattle. "It’s a great way to travel," he said, but the odds are the train would not be on time and the ride would be lengthy. For short distances, trains now are not reliable, but they can be with high speed rail, he said. "It makes so much sense for us."

The first step in high speed rail in Wisconsin is to improve the Milwaukee to Madison corridor, Clark said and the state has applied for American Recovery and Investment Act funds to do that. The act has set aside $8 billion for high speed rail projects. The Madison to Milwaukee route would be the first in getting the state closer to a vision of regional high speed rail.

No community would benefit more from high speed rail than the Dells. With high speed rail, 10 to 20 percent of visitors could arrive on the train, he said, and that would allow more community travel options to develop. "It could be a huge benefit to the tourism economy," Clark said.

Another WISPIRG student volunteer Scott Thompson said the students are asking the Legislature to make changes in Wisconsin law that would allow regional transportation authorities to be established. Communities cannot establish RTAs under current law.

Thompson said work with WISPIRG allows students to work on issue they care about such as global warming and transportation.