Nigerians Benefit From the Disastrous Legacy of Wisconsin's GOP Governor

The Governor of Lagos, Nigeria has bought 28 trains built by the Spanish company Talgo that were originally meant for a high-speed railway in Wisconsin initially planned to connect Milwaukee and Madison. Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu was in Milwaukee last month for the purchase of the Series 8 trains, which will instead be used as part of Lagos’ Red Line, considered the first operational metro system in West Africa, according to a press release.  Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson told Wisconsin Public Radio that the moment was “bittersweet.” “I'm sending my congratulations to the governor in Lagos State in Nigeria, but also a little disappointed that we missed out on the opportunity to have those trainsets operating here in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin.”

The saga to build a high-speed rail in Wisconsin spans a decade and spawned an acclaimed Wisconsin Public Radio podcast series titled “Derailed.” The podcast follows former Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle’s announcement in 2009 to buy two 14-car Talgo trains for $47 million in order to use them on Amtrak’s Hiawatha Service that provides daily service to Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The high-speed rail hopes between Madison and Milwaukee were part of a multi-million dollar deal that included making improvements to the longer Chicago-Milwaukee route. After Doyle left office, then-GOP Governor Scott Walker returned $810 million of federal funds meant for the project in 2010, which not only put the railway plan on ice but hurt workers at the Talgo plant in Milwaukee who built the trains in the first place. A series of lawsuits followed and the planned $810 million went elsewhere.

Proponents of the high-speed railway project, like Milwaukee Alder Robert Bauman, were resigned about where the 28 trains will ultimately end up. “It's kind of an absurd ending to an absurd tale,” Bauman told Wisconsin Public Radio. In recounting the decade-long saga, Bauman wondered, “Who buys a set of train cars, refuses to complete the contract, ends up getting sued, settles, pays out another $50-some million in damages, and then you don't even get the cars?”  Current Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who narrowly beat Walker in the 2018 election, has been relatively quiet about the high-speed rail snafu and has yet to issue a statement about the Talgo trains ultimately being used in Nigeria.