So i hear they are building in Mt Pleasant, WI and that land basically surrounds the Sturtevant Amtrak Station. I wonder if Canadian Pacific will get any of the action at the proposed $10 Billion FOXCONN plant. The only thing I can think of is Chemical Shipments might go by rail to the plant complex. Shipment of LCD displays would probably go by truck or container. Still I wonder if the new plant complex will result in more freight being shipped via CP.
Certainly Amtrak, Chicago-Milwaukee should get more riders as they are buying a large building in downtown Milwaukee for the Corporate HQ offices. To me that means potential business travelers between Sturtevant and Milwaukee and between Sturtevant and Chicago.
All wild guesses on my part since I am no longer local to Wisconsin. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out or if they fully build out the projected $10 Billion plant complex.
CMStPnP Certainly Amtrak, Chicago-Milwaukee should get more riders as they are buying a large building in downtown Milwaukee for the Corporate HQ offices. To me that means potential business travelers between Sturtevant and Milwaukee and between Sturtevant and Chicago.
Foxconn has already asked Wisconsin to build an extra lane on I94 from Hwy 11 to downtown Milwaukee. They also requested that this lane be for the exclusive use of Foxconn.
CMStPnP ...It will be interesting to see how this all pans out or if they fully build out the projected $10 Billion plant complex.
...It will be interesting to see how this all pans out or if they fully build out the projected $10 Billion plant complex.
I work just north of the area where the complex will go, so far, utility crews are upgrading all services. Not sure how or if rail will service the facility, as CP ripped out the track that runs along the north side of the complex area last year. Will be interesting to watch and keep track, there is supposed to be 32 million square feet of production and warehouse space to be built........
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
Scott Walker just about gave away the state to bring in a firm that has a track record of not keeping its end of the bargain to get a batch of relatively low-paying jobs (hopefully).
CSSHEGEWISCHScott Walker just about gave away the state to bring in a firm that has a track record of not keeping its end of the bargain to get a batch of relatively low-paying jobs (hopefully). Add Quote to your Post
Agree it was stupid $3-4 Billion for average $50k a year jobs. Additionally, talk to folks in Phoenix area that already have tech assembly jobs like that and the jobs are mostly dead-end with little upward mobility. Then of course LCD monitors could fall out of popularity within the next 5-6 years in favor of a more efficient means of display.........then what?
One reason I left the State was that it never plans for development, everything is impulsive and thrown together. You can see it in the layout of the suburbs of Milwaukee, one CF after another. Schools, gas stations, subdivisions, supermarkets all placed hodge podge. Mass Transit a complete after thought, only reason they have park and ride along I-94 West of Milwaukee is because that was the DOT's compromise for avoiding bringing the commuter trains back.
I remember being part of WisARP and working to try and restore Commutter Trains to Watertown from Milwaukee (there is a demand for them if you look at SEWPRC studies and travel patterns). The mayors in the communities along the rail route....oh my gosh. They only were for commuter rail if someone else was paying the full bill and they did not have to spend a dime. Forget about a regional system the Mayors wanted none of that. Business community in Milwaukee was more maleable but wanted a "prove it" year long or longer demonstration period that the State and Feds were unwilling to fund. I respect the Business Community in Milwaukee, very common sense and not so stupid to think passenger rail has to turn a profit or fund itself. They are the main drivers behind the existing Chicago-Milwaukee service......without their support it would have disappeared instead of expanded. Milwaukee Road tried it's best as well to nurse along the idea of commuter trains and their efforts went until 1985.
So if you ever want to see expanded passenger service beyond Chicago to Milwaukee in Wisconsin. Milwaukee Business Community will be the most supportive and will bring the political clout at the State level if you can make a decent case to them. Curious to see how service to Green Bay, WI gets launched when that time comes as it is in Amtraks long-term plan.
The whole light rail in Milwaukee or City Trolley was an idea first floated by former Mayor Norquist.......look how long it took for that to get to construction. Milwaukee residents are still beotching about how expensive it is going to be and what a boondoggle it will be even now as it is being contructed.....just look on FB. It's sad but watch their opinions change once it is up and runing for a year or two.
rvos1979 ...CP ripped out the track that runs along the north side of the complex area last year.
...CP ripped out the track that runs along the north side of the complex area last year.
The segment was the last remnants of the Racine & Southwestern Railroad that ran from near downtown Racine through Delevan, Janesville, and Monroe out to the Mississippi (except between Elkhorn and Monroe, the remaining tracks are used by the Wisconsin Southern).
Interestingly, the abandonment proposal to the STB was from the SOO Line Railroad.
https://www.stb.gov/decisions/readingroom.nsf/fc695db5bc7ebe2c852572b80040c45f/bf61e138542b8ea985257c860052e6e7?OpenDocument
zardoz I was surprised that CP ripped up those tracks (from Sturtevant to Kansasville); they were nothing but old lightweight stick rail that had been in place for at least 50 years. Why go through the expense to pull up miles of old rail? The segment was the last remnants of the Racine & Southwestern Railroad that ran from near downtown Racine through Delevan, Janesville, and Monroe out to the Mississippi (except between Elkhorn and Monroe, the remaining tracks are used by the Wisconsin Southern). Interestingly, the abandonment proposal to the STB was from the SOO Line Railroad. https://www.stb.gov/decisions/readingroom.nsf/fc695db5bc7ebe2c852572b80040c45f/bf61e138542b8ea985257c860052e6e7?OpenDocument
I suspect the amounts recieved for the scrap exceeded the costs of removng the track and transporting the scrap to the scrapper.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
zardozI was surprised that CP ripped up those tracks (from Sturtevant to Kansasville); they were nothing but old lightweight stick rail that had been in place for at least 50 years. Why go through the expense to pull up miles of old rail? The segment was the last remnants of the Racine & Southwestern Railroad that ran from near downtown Racine through Delevan, Janesville, and Monroe out to the Mississippi (except between Elkhorn and Monroe, the remaining tracks are used by the Wisconsin Southern). Interestingly, the abandonment proposal to the STB was from the SOO Line Railroad.
I think it was 80 or 90 lb jointed rail, Milwaukee used to run the high speed Passenger Train on the line between Kansas City and Milwaukee. Also the Racine and Southwestern curved Southwest to Beloit where it connected to the Racine and Mississippi which terminated at Freeport, IL connection with the Milwaukee Road line from Iowa to Chicago (Milwaukee District West Line).
The line you see that goes to Monroe was stub end branch to Mineral Point, WI (Mineral Point Railroad) which was laid to haul Lead Ore East when Mineral Point was a very large Lead Mining town.......Mineral Point was almost as large as Milwaukee at one point but shrunk in size considerably after the ore mines closed.
Anyhow "the Southwestern" was significantly upgraded in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Milwaukee Road management thought the Port of Milwaukee would boom with the improvements made to the St Lawerence Seaway, so they invested heavily in the line replacing wood trestles with steel bridges, straightening curves, and putting down track on Jones Island in Milwaukee. This was to be a significant shortcut to Kansas City avoiding Chicago and the Milwaukee Road dreamt of big business because of it. At one point up until 1934 at least the former Milwaukee and Mississippi line from Brookfield to Prarie Du Chien, WI had a spur line from Eagle to I think near Elkhorn where it also connected with the Southwestern, though I am not sure if they ran passenger trains over it. They ripped it up in 1934 and you need a Milwaukee system map prior to 1934 to see the line.
Except for the Milwaukee - Kansas City passenger train which was mostly a section of the Chicago to Kansas City train that split and joined in I think Davenport, IA (not sure). The shortcut from Milwaukee to Kansas City never really took off traffic wise and I am not sure when Milwaukee gave up on it but upgrading the line was a waste of money. City of Milwaukee started to give up on the Port of Milwaukee in the late 1960's early 1970's. Then they abandoned cross lake railroad Ferry Service (C & O, GT had ferries to Milwaukee because of the AMC auto plants in Milwaukee and Kenosha primarily.....faster to ship across the Lake to Michigan and then into Canada) After the Ferry Services pulled out the Port still did a fair amount of business through the early 1970's but slowly died until it was a real rarity to see a ship docked there after 1980. I remember grain being shipped to the Soviet Union, Allis Chalmers Tractors being shipped out of there, Large Machinery from P&H, etc
I think a lot of that rail was 112lb rail, I don't remember seeing a lot of compromise bars, plus the WSOR Elkhorn sub was all 112lb when I used to work it........
A lot of Lake ports (Chicago included) really began to decline in the early 1970's due to containerization and later with the decline of the steel industry.
The rails removed has also removed on of the few scenic locations in the area.
Red Sun on Steel Rails by Jim, on Flickr" alt="" />[url=https://flic.kr/p/d6nuE3]
Sorry about the double image - I could not get the image to show using only one link.
The photo was taken looking west from the 56th Road crossing just west of I94.
OK, sounds like they are trying to fast track Amtrak Chicago-Milwaukee expansion now to 10 round trips per day. That proposed project is going to cost approx $250 million in my view..........if my math is correct and it's probably not.
I think they said $195 million for Chicago-Milwaukee track improvements which includes a third track in Northern Illinois somewhere for a long passing siding for freights (I think I heard 3-5 miles long). Also they want to increase speeds North of the Illinois border to 90 mph..........not sure what that means for signaling. Last but not least Amtrak has demanded Wisconsin fund an additional trainset 6 cars and two locomotives to cover the increased schedule as they cannot cover it with what they have.
Finally, they want to spend $44 million to route freight trains around the Amtrak station. WisDOT does not like the routing of freight trains through the Amtrak Depot and fears they are prematurely wearing out the bridge across the river next to 2nd Avenue on the East End of the Depot. So the plan is to extend CTC over the Frieght train cutoff to Muskego yard South of the Depot, improve the track speed through the yard and then rejoin the main at the former CUT-OFF Tower before Brewers Stadium. Why that costs $44 million is beyond me, the track is in place and it's only about what 3-5 miles of new CTC? At least it will result in continuous CTC through Milwaukee instead of having the current break before the Depot and/or at the yard limits. So that should speed CP freights though Milwaukee at least, in my opinion. As well as a slight speed up in CP freights through METRA territory where they intend to put the long third track passing siding.
Here is the article:
https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2018/02/08/transportation-projects-accommodate-foxconn-moving-different-tracks/319223002/
As of this morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Foxconn has decided not to build anything at this Racine County plant as US production costs are too high for flat panel displays. Instead it will be an office for engineers and there will be no manufacturing jobs. Many of the engineers will be imported from China.
Tom Burke As of this morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Foxconn has decided not to build anything at this Racine County plant as US production costs are too high for flat panel displays. Instead it will be an office for engineers and there will be no manufacturing jobs. Many of the engineers will be imported from China.
“In Wisconsin we’re not building a factory. You can’t use a factory to view our Wisconsin investment,” Woo said..."
"...Earlier this month, Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple, reiterated its intention to create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, but said it had slowed its pace of hiring. The company initially said it expected to employ about 5,200 people by the end of 2020; a company source said that figure now looks likely to be closer to 1,000 workers..."
With a tip of the Kromer Cap to Paul (CSShegewisch), whose seems to be somewhat clairvoyant, with his earlier predictions in this Thread.
Chinese bait and switch - nothing like the art of getting dealt!
Many progressives thought that the FoxCON deal was just another of ex-guv Scoots' empty promises. The awakened WI voters turned him out in November.
The orange-toupeed real estate guy also boasted about the 13,000 manufacturing jobs for SE WI. Poof!!!!
Let's not throw the baby out just yet shall we. China's economy is having major issues right now. They have missed their growth estimate for the last 3 year's missed production goals for their energy sector the last 2 and this information is coming from a classmate of my husband their agricultural industry is currently 30 percent below estimate. They've literally got to import 30 percent more food to feed their nations people. His classmate is saying without US grain imports 400 million Chinese people would be hungry. That's why they folded so fast on the trade talks against us. They had a choice to make mass starvation of 1/3 of their population or give in and not giving in would have cost them their nation.
BaltACD Chinese bait and switch - nothing like the art of getting dealt!
T.Rump had claimed that Foxconn would be "the eighth wonder of the world" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/business/foxconn-factory-wisconsin.html And each time Foxconn further reneges on their deal, they issue a further BS press release indicating that they are 'reevaluating their strategy in the face of increased competition but are still committed to their original deal'. What a load of crap.
Hard to believe our "representatives" would lie to us: "Mexico will pay for the wall"; "health insurance for all, which will be cheaper and better than Obama's plan"; ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
Still waiting for the swamp to be drained
The trade talks resumed Wednesday and there is no evidence China has or is folding.
This may be a symptom of a larger problem in China ...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/chinese-exiting-us-real-estate-as-beijing-directs-money-back-to-shore-up-economy/ar-BBSSX4W
Folks,
Keep it to rail service, please, or this thread will be locked.
Thank you.
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Brian Schmidt Folks, Keep it to rail service, please, or this thread will be locked. Thank you.
China brought in 220,000 tonnes of sorghum in July, down 62.5 percent from 588,364 tonnes a year ago, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. Thursday’s data also showed China took in 330,000 tonnes of corn in July, down 63.7 percent from last year. China’s wheat imports last month also slid 43.03 percent from a year earlier to 140,000 tonnes.China imports one-third of its corn and wheat from the United States, according to customs data.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-trade-agriculture/chinas-july-grain-imports-plunge-as-tariffs-on-u-s-supplies-bite-idUSKCN1L80MI
So while our discussion may have drifted a bit, it is still relevant.
No claim of clairvoyance, just a healthy skepticism of these deals until the factory is actually up and running.
OMG, this thread is funny. We still have a one China policy though and it's more correct to state the company is based in Taiwan and operated by the Taiwanese with plants in China.
Seriously and back to rail service, this has not impacted plans to increase Hiawatha service to 10 trips in each direction. That part is still moving forwards.
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