Wisconsin's governor-elect Walker is showing more executive vision and putting the money where it will have a greater impact for the greater good of more people by directing high-speed rail money to be spent on roads and highways. Illinois Governor Quinn should take a hint.

What we don't need is another transit bureaucracy, like some of the Chicago area suburban bus transit authorities, and all its operational funding requirements that has more people sitting at the board of directors' table collecting a check, than what they have sitting on the busses paying a fare on a daily basis.

That is NOT saving the environment. That is mass waste, not mass transit.

Mass transit doesn't pay off unless there are a great number of people taking it everyday! Not just for a one-time "let's check out the train" fantasy ride which is about the strongest affirmation of the new high-speed train infrastructure that Joe Citizen has announced. No one is saying they are going to be buying monthly passes or worried about long lines to buy tickets.

ILLINOIS' TRAIN TO NOWHERE
Instead of wasting money on a route to St. Louis, all that transportation money should be spent on

• adding another access (West) entrance to O'Hare Airport;
• fixing up the CTA routes in the Chicago metropolitan area; and
• adding Metra train routes coming into Chicago. For example, add a third track on the route between Chicago and Elgin so they can put in express trains and make the commute time shorter.

These projects should be the priority projects for Illinois as they would positively impact the most people on a daily basis.

Traffic would clear up on eastbound 90 where many motorists are jammed up everyday due to many cars going downtown being slowed down by cars and trucks going to O'Hare. They have to go so much further east because no one ever thought about access from the west of O'Hare, not just westbound traffic from the city.

The commuter rails that bring in people everyday to work in Chicago should be updated. The CTA as well as Metra routes could benefit from that money being spent on updating their infrastructure.

To get more people to take a train from Wisconsin to downtown Chicago could be easily accomplished and at a much lower cost just by adding a couple more trains on the AMTRAK line that goes from Milwaukee to Chicago. Just add more trains to the existing track with more times at rush hour, more riders will appear.

Maybe then we can start seeing more jobs come into the state of Illinois instead leaving the state. Having wishful thinking that a "train to nowhere" is going to create a better job environment or create residual jobs beyond the initial construction jobs is ludicrous.

A simple cost-benefit analysis should be the way to prioritize infrastructure projects, not by a whimsical exuberance of several elected officials' misguided ideas that a high-speed train will somehow “wow” businesses to magically appear in the state and create jobs.

Evidently Scott Walker did well in math in school compared to Pat Quinn. At least he sees that the numbers don't add up for trains - not only in residual job creation, but in servicing the public who are expected to ride them en masse as well as pay for their ongoing operational costs.

Quinn take a hint and while you're doing that, also look to the east and see what Christie is doing to cut state budgets in New Jersey.

CARLINI-ISM Let's have some common sense in government and put money into the right layers of infrastructure which have the greatest payback.