It would be great to see some polling to get some media attention to the issue, but for the most part the media seems to not care about Amtrak or anything passenger rail related.
In Wisconsin, local media have been covering this issue quite a lot. In the state's largest paper, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, hardly a day has gone by since election day that there hasn't been a story, an editorial or at least a letter to the editor.
The multi-city save the train rally organized by the Sierra Club got press coverage and made for good TV.
The Journal-Sentinel and the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal both endorsed Walker for governor, but both added that his "Stop the Train" platform was foolishness.
Minnesota DOT is the lead agency for studies on HSR to the Twin Cities. Hearings are being held in several Wisconsin locations next week, and advocates for the CHI-MSN project plan on using these meetings as an opportunity to keep this issue in the public's mind.
AlanB said:
As for the current Gov not putting everything under contract, frankly in the greater scheme of things it was a smart move on his part. Now the Dems can't be blamed for the train. It's all on the Gov elect Mr. Walker. He's either got to actually kill the project on his own and take the heat for it or reverse his pledge and move forward on the project. Either way, he gets the blame.
And with the Fed essentially ready to send Wisconsin a bill for $100 Million, money that they don't have, if he cancels the project, he has a bit problem.
Wisconsin has run up enough of a tab to make things difficult for Walker. Ohio's 3C project is not very far along, so I suspect that Gov. Strickland made the right choice by
not stopping the work, which is primarily in the study and design stage.
I find it interesting that Iowa's once and future governor Terry Brandstad has remained quiet on the Chicago-Quad Cities-Iowa City project. As with Chicago-Twin Cities, this brings back the same issues of having states involved in multi-state projects.
In the longer run, several other Midwest corridors have similar characteristics. Chicago-Louisville, Chicago-Cincinnati, and Chicago-Toledo run primarily through Indiana but serve population centers just outside the state. IIRC, Michigan had to coax Indiana into applying for ARRA funds to improve the bottleneck in Portage, which affects primarily Michigan trains.