Derailed

From the team that brought you "Derailed," subscribe to hear "Mapped Out," a new, six-part series debuting in September that will give the lowdown on Wisconsin's redistricting past and let listeners know what the next set of maps could mean. Subscribe at "WPR Reports" wherever you get your podcasts.

Because the story of "Derailed" happened over the course of decades, there's a lot there, and a lot we didn't get to. Some of it, like Gov. Jim Doyle's role in ending the train, is still discussed today. Other stuff, like the 2016 Olympics connection, seems to have been lost to history. Here are some of the questions we didn't get to in "Derailed.

When former Gov. Tommy Thompson decided to return to politics in 2012, he was walking into a Wisconsin that was as divided as ever. The game had changed, and Thompson had to play by a new set of rules. That meant a new take on some of his old positions, including the train.

Before Gov. Scott Walker canceled the high-speed rail line that would have connected Madison to Milwaukee in 2010, Wisconsin bought two trains from a Spanish company named Talgo. The story of these trains is messy. And in a way, they're the physical reminder of the debate Wisconsin had almost a decade ago.

When Wisconsin rejected $810 million in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail, the money was redistributed to other states. California got the largest chunk to go toward a rail line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, a project that is still ongoing.

In 2010, Democrats controlled everything, from the White House, to Congress, to the governor's office to the Wisconsin state Legislature. Republicans were pushing back, and the Tea Party was in full swing. But something was changing in American politics and in Wisconsin — and Scott Walker used the high-speed rail plan to seize the moment.

Almost a decade after it was first unveiled, the Great Recession and President Barack Obama's federal stimulus bill gave Wisconsin's plan for a high-speed rail line new life.

Even if you remember that it was Gov. Scott Walker who wanted to kill the high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee, there's a chance you don't remember who started it. It wasn't Walker's Democratic opponent in 2010, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Or the governor before Walker, Democrat Jim Doyle. Instead it was Wisconsin's longest-serving governor — a Republican governor — Gov. Tommy Thompson.

In 2010, Wisconsin got a federal grant to build a high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee. Derailed is the story of how the rail project came together, how it fell apart and how Wisconsin changed along the way.