To help gain support for high-speed rail, Gov. Jim Doyle — along with Democratic and Republican governors from around the Midwest –sent a letter to the U.S. transportation secretary Friday advocating for the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative.

Doyle — along with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley — signed the letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood promoting the initiative.

According to the governors, the initiative, which was created in 1998, would use 3,000 miles of existing rail tracks to connect rural and metropolitan areas throughout the Midwest.

The rail would also create a passenger rail system, which would provide service to Chicago as well as other locations in the Midwest.

Multimodal connections would also be used to connect passengers to communities, buses and highways while focusing on reliability and on-time performance.

Supporters are advocating that rail lines likely to receive the most passenger traffic should be funded first, including corridors with trains traveling from Chicago to Milwaukee, Madison and the Twin Cities, Chicago to St. Louis and Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac.

The governors argued these three rail lines should receive funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which set aside $8 billion to develop high-speed rail around the country.

Daley and the governors also stressed the importance of approving funding as early as possible to help Chicago with its 2016 Summer Olympics bid, which is currently under consideration.

Although Doyle remains optimistic about the possibility of a high-speed train initiative throughout the Midwest, no projects have been approved for federal funding yet, according to Doyle spokesperson Lee Sensenbrenner.

Although Iowa will not receive any improvements in rail transportation as part of the first wave of projects, Culver is still supporting the measure in hopes of a possible line traveling from Chicago to Dubuque as well as from Chicago to Iowa City, according to Jim Larew, Culver’s spokesperson from the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission.

“The benefits to Iowa would be many … low costs, more fuel efficient, less carbon intensive mode of transportation,” Larew said. “Many consumers, if given the opportunity, would choose this option.”

According to Larew, college students and senior citizens are among the demographics most likely to use the trains.

However, Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, member of the Senate Committee on Transportation, said he was skeptical of the plan.

“It is a bad idea because the government is broke and should not build anything more that will be paid for by people 30 years from now,” Grothman said. “All the train will do, at least between Milwaukee and Madison, is replace the already very efficient and enjoyable Badger Bus.”

Grothman also expressed his concern about the ability of the trains to make any profit, likely leaving the state further in debt.