Madison — Wisconsin's internal squabbling over a proposed Milwaukee to Madison passenger rail line went national Tuesday as Governor-elect Scott Walker urged the Obama administration to let the state divert $810 million in federal stimulus funds from the project to roads, and officials in other states, such as Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, stepped up calls for the rail funds to be sent to their projects instead.

In a letter Tuesday to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Walker, a Republican, said the state had massive needs for building and repairing bridges and roads that are "literally crumbling."

"All across the country, in states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida, the voters chose new governors who are opposed to diverting transportation funding to passenger rail. I believe it would be unwise for the Obama administration to ignore the will of the voters," Walker wrote.

In separate news Tuesday, an aide to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said the mayor was open to having his city cover part of the state's future operating costs for the line - one of Walker's key objections to the project. But the top aide to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the city was not interested in contributing and instead would likely sue if the state did not move forward with the project.

On Monday, LaHood had told Walker that the federal money had to be spent on the rail project or Wisconsin would lose it to another state - a view that was echoed Tuesday by a key Republican from the state's congressional delegation.

U.S. Rep. Tom Petri of Fond du Lac, a veteran member of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he supports Walker's plan but sees little hope for it to succeed. That's because the money already has been set aside specifically for rail and there are other states requesting it for that purpose, Petri said in an interview.

Petri opposed the federal stimulus bill containing the rail funding but has not taken a position on the Madison-to-Milwaukee rail project itself, which would include a possible stop in his district in Watertown.

"Now this money, if Wisconsin decides not to use it, is still in that grant program and in the normal course of events would be rebid and go to New York or California or one of the (other) states," Petri said. "For us to keep that money would require us to change the law, and that would mean getting the votes of (states like) New York and California and Florida. It's conceivable but very unlikely."

Meanwhile Tuesday, another key Republican from Wisconsin, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville, would not commit right away to Walker's plan. Ryan, who is expected to become the next chairman of the House Budget Committee, said in a statement only that he would work with Walker, U.S. transportation officials and others on "how we can meet our state's primary transportation needs and do so in a fiscally responsible way."

Ryan was not available for an interview.

The planned Milwaukee-to-Madison rail line would operate as an extension of Amtrak's existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line, and eventually could be part of a Chicago-to-Twin Cities route. Plans call for starting the operation with six daily round trips at a top speed of 79 mph in 2013, rising to a top speed of 110 mph by the end of 2015.

Canceling a planned high-speed rail line could cost Wisconsin taxpayers nearly $100 million and more than 400 jobs in the near future, Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday. It would also save the state on operating costs of up to $7.5 million per year for the line, depending on how much of that is paid by the federal government.

In comments Tuesday in Chicago, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, said his state would be delighted to step in and take additional high-speed cash if Wisconsin pulls out of the project.

"Well, hey, we'd like all the money that Wisconsin is getting for high speed rail," Quinn said at a news conference. "If they're going to turn it down, which I think is a very bad decision on their part, but if they're going to turn down that money, we can use it in Illinois. We're building a fast train from Chicago to St. Louis and we want to build fast trains all over the Midwest."

Quinn said he already has spoken with Vice President Joe Biden about trying to secure additional high-speed funds for Illinois - the state is already receiving $1.2 billion - from states such as Wisconsin and is seeking to lure manufacturing jobs linked to rail cars from Wisconsin to Illinois as well. New York Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo also has said his state would like Wisconsin's share of the passenger rail money.

U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the ranking GOP member on the House Transportation Committee, told The Associated Press last week that he thinks high-speed trains are a good idea, but that the Northeast is probably the only region in the country with a population density great enough to financially support a high-speed rail network. A spokesman for the committee said Mica isn't available for interviews this week.

In his letter to LaHood, Walker said the state as of 2008 already had a more than $1 billion shortfall in keeping up with needed repairs and expansions of its roads and bridges. He said the key to keeping Wisconsin moving forward was its system of interstates and highways and said those had made passenger rail outdated.

"For us to now go backward on transportation makes little sense," he wrote.

But outgoing U.S. Rep. Dave Obey said he worried that Wisconsin was actually repeating mistakes made a half century ago when the nation's interstate system was built. Obey, a Democrat from Wausau who helped write the stimulus law that included the rail funding, said Wisconsin had early concerns about finding matching funds for the interstate system and failed to take full advantage of the opportunity early on to upgrade Highways 51 and 29.

"For decades, it locked Wisconsin highway users into sending many more dollars to Washington than we got back in highway aids, and it also meant slower economic growth and fewer jobs," Obey said in a statement Tuesday. "I fear we are about to put ourselves in that same box with high speed rail."

Senator-elect Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) did not respond to a request for comment. Lynn Becker, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), said in an e-mail that "the Secretary of Transportation has made it clear that if the money is not used for rail, it cannot be used for roads."

When asked Tuesday whether Milwaukee would consider contributing to the train's operating costs, Patrick Curley, Barrett's chief of staff, said: "We are not interested in investing more than we have to date. The City of Milwaukee has made significant investments in the new downtown Intermodal Station and in the redevelopment of the old Tower Automotive site, which is now home to Talgo. The city's investments run in the millions of dollars. Should the governor-elect lose Wisconsin's share of high speed rail funds to other states, the City of Milwaukee will have little choice but to look to the courts for the full recovery of the dollars expended thus far."

Milwaukee-based Talgo is building two trains for an existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago rail service and had plans to build two more for the proposed Milwaukee-to-Madison line. The company has a site at the former Tower Automotive property.

In comments made Tuesday at the Capitol, Walker showed little sign of changing his position.

"Right now I see no scenario where the taxpayers of Wisconsin aren't going to be on the hook for millions of dollars," Walker said. "And to me unless there was an ironclad agreement that showed me otherwise, I'm not interested."

Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this article.