Rallying support for rail service

From an article by Joe Potente in the Kenosha News:

MILWAUKEE — A summit on regional transit sounded something like a pep rally for public transportation by the time it wrapped up Friday.

A panel of transit backers from Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee didn’t agree entirely on the viability of commuter rail in the region, but they were united on one major point: Now is the time to pass legislation to create a true regional transit authority with a dedicated sales tax.

And a national expert on transit and urban sustainability said that authority must be taken seriously in order for anything to get done.

Panelist Eric Isbister was blunt. Isbister said a lack of public transit near his Mequon-based business shuts his company off from many car-less members of an enormous workforce a few miles south in Milwaukee.

“We’ve got to stop romancing this issue,” said Isbister, chief executive officer of General MetalWorks Corp., a Mequon-based metal fabrication firm. “We’ve got to get results.”

Said Deborah Blanks, chief executive officer of the Milwaukee Social Development Commission: “It’s about access and opportunity. It’s a connector to prosperity.”

The summit, at the Italian Conference Center, was presented by the Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin, the Greater Milwaukee Committee and the city of Milwaukee.

Posted in: Rail,Transit