Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle is dismissing threats by Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann to derail the high-speed rail project that will connect Milwaukee and Madison.
Doyle and local officials announced a final downtown location for a high-speed rail station in Madison on Thursday.
Wisconsin has been allocated $823 million in federal funding for high-speed rail.
According to a report by the Wisconsin Radio Network, Doyle said, "We are entering into the appropriate agreements with the federal government. I guess short of sitting down in the front of the federal government and defying the federal government, I don't think it's realistic to say that this project would stop."
In a statement, Walker vowed to stop the "misguided and wasteful project" if he is elected in November.
"Every announcement by Gov. Doyle and Mayor Barrett on their controversial train boondoggle further commits our state to their pet project that taxpayers literally cannot afford," Walker said.
In response, Doyle said, "It's a nice thing to say in a political campaign, maybe. I don't understand the politics of it … But, as a practical reality, you have agreements with the federal government on what is fundamentally a federal project. I think it's pretty hard to stop that." Doyle compared plans for a national high speed rail network to the existing interstate highway system, noting that it would have been extremely difficult for an individual state to withdraw from that project.
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