Minn., Wis. high-speed rail gets $1M study grant

A $1 million grant from the White House will help transportation officials in Minnesota and Wisconsin study the feasibility of extending a high-speed rail line between Madison and the Twin Cities.

It's part of a much larger package of $8 billion in grants for high-speed rail projects the White House is announcing Thursday.

The Madison-to-the-Twin Cities connection is just one leg of a proposed high-speed rail link between the Twin Cities, Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago along the Amtrak Empire Builder line.

The speeded-up connections between Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago are further in the planning stages, and are getting $813 million in White House money for station construction and renovation and other construction and engineering costs.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)