Joint Communiqué
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
James P. Hill, Empire Builder High Speed Rail Coalition: 608-784-5488
Scott Rogers, West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition: 715-864-6257

5/19/10. -- They may not agree on which route should be chosen for the planned Madison-St. Paul High Speed Rail Line, but
business groups advocating for the La Crosse and Eau Claire routes say they support continued state investment in passenger
rail, including completion of the planned Milwaukee to Madison line, as well as increased frequency on current routes and
additional local corridor opportunities.

In a joint statement, the groups are calling on candidates running for the State Legislature, U.S. House of Representatives,
U.S. Senate and Governor to pledge support for passenger rail as critical to the economic future of the region and state.

Representatives of The Empire Builder High Speed Rail Coalition and the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition met
Friday, May 7th in Arcadia, WI in an effort to focus attention on passenger rail, and eventually high speed rail, being a
necessary addition to the travel choices available for business and leisure.

They note that plans to build a statewide system began 14 years ago as part of a nine-state effort under then Republican
Governor Tommy Thompson, with the Wisconsin DOT continuing the same policies through the subsequent McCallum (R)
and Doyle (D) administrations. The coalitions say passenger trains have long had bi-partisan support because the economic
benefits the system will deliver far outweigh the anticipated ongoing state operating support.

James Hill, facilitator of the Empire Builder High Speed Rail Coalition said, “We’re setting aside our individual route
aspirations today to let people and political candidates know that we favor increased frequency of trains now and high speed
trains as soon as practicable.” He was referring to the fact that three groups—The Empire Builder Coalition, the Minnesota
High Speed Rail Commission and OnBoard Midwest—have been promoting the “Empire Builder” route, also known as the
“river route”, as the preferred route when high speed trains début. The West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition, on the other
hand, has been promoting a route running from through Black River Falls, Eau Claire, Menomonie and Hudson to St. Paul
as the preferred route. The West Central Wisconsin group is part of the Momentum West 10-county economic development
organization. The route selection has been assigned to a study process that is likely to be completed in 2011.

Scott Rogers, facilitator of the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition said, “We want people who seek to govern next year
at the state and federal level to know that there is a significant constituency in the business community and beyond that calls
for adding high speed train travel as a transportation choice as well as an economic development tool. We believe high
speed rail will be to the 21st Century economy what the interstate highway system was in the latter half of the 20th Century.”

The groups say it’s important to move forward with the planned Milwaukee-Madison line, which has received federal
funding of $810 million to cover 100% of its construction costs, for Wisconsin to maintain its leadership position.

“Turning down these federal funds because of the ongoing operating support needed,” asserted Rogers, “would be like
turning down federal funding for I-90 and I-94 back in the 50s and 60s because we’d have to continue to maintain and police
  

it. Clearly, our state has benefited economically from those highways, and in the future, we’ll see the same thing from High
Speed Rail.”

Underscoring this point, the group heard a summary of the results of a recent UW-La Crosse survey of over 2,000 La Crosse
Area business leaders. Over 500 respondents indicated overwhelming support for and anticipated usage of high speed trains
as an additional travel choice, especially if there are multiple, convenient additional frequencies.

Those gathered in Arcadia identified four areas of agreement and plan to issue a communication to officials and candidates
concerning these four points in the coming weeks:

• Continuing the promotion of passenger rail and eventually high speed passenger rail on a bipartisan basis as has been
the case for several decades.
• Immediately adding at least one more train per day traveling in each direction on the Empire Builder Route between
Milwaukee and St. Paul.
• Establishing passenger rail service from St. Paul to Eau Claire, recently included by MNDOT as part of the Minnesota
State Rail Plan.
• Acceptance of federal stimulus dollars for the build-out enabling high speed train travel from Milwaukee to Madison.
The build-out through Wisconsin is incremental and trains cannot get from Madison to St. Paul without the timely
completion of the Milwaukee to Madison segment. A national High Speed Rail network is being built, and if these
funds are not spent in Wisconsin, they will be spent elsewhere

Leaders of the Minnesota High Speed Rail Commission and Onboard Midwest also took part in this important meeting.

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Those attending
West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition
Jim Dunning, Eau Claire County Board
Ned Noel, City of Eau Claire
Jackie Pavelski, Eau Claire City Council
Scott Rogers, Gloria Jean’s Coffees/ Coalition Co-Chair
Bill Rubin, St. Croix County Economic Development Corporation
Ann Schell, West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission
Ray Willoughby, Alliance Bank

Empire Builder High Speed Rail Coalition

James Hill, La Crosse Area Development Corp
Dick Granchalek, La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce
Larry Kirch, City of La Crosse
Jennifer Kuderer, La Crosse Area Development Corp
Steve O’Malley, La Crosse County Administrator

Minnesota High Speed Rail Commission

Mayor Jerry Miller, City of Winona

Onboard Midwest
Dennis Egan, Facilitator