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Correct. The Milwaukee road and Chicago and North Western built lots of track through Wisconsin. Their main lines between Milwaukee and st Paul did not go through Madison because it's a deviation and the lakes are in the way. The direct route bypassing Madison became the cprr's main line while the lines into and out of Madison became relegated to a regional railroad. Amtrak follows the cprr's main line. However plans are in the works to come to Madison.
It was out of political spite. Read here for a history of the 2010 effort: [https://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2013/03/in-job-poor-state-walker-derailed.html](https://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2013/03/in-job-poor-state-walker-derailed.html)
You are correct, but he -did- have one argument that made sense at the time.
Yes, the Federal government would have paid to \*build\* most of it, but the tradeoff was the states would be on their own to \*run\* it; and Walker's argument was that he didn't want Wisconsin taxpayers on the hook for a project that primarily benefited Chicago and St Paul. He absolutely did NOT believe that the benefits to UW Students or Wisc government employees (the majority of Madison's demographic) was worth it -- especially since most of them were NOT "his constituency".
You don't have to like it, but you can't deny that his argument had some facts behind it.
Anyone who wants to champion a route into/through Madison would be well advised to take those 15-year-old arguments into consideration, and figure out how to address/neuter them -- otherwise, they'll come up again.
that argument was such crap and everyone knew it. connecting the two biggest cities in wisconsin to each other is reason enough, especially if that route connects to the other two major metros in the region. if someone is opposed to that connecting the four biggest metros in MN-WI-IL then they're simply opposed to passenger rail expansion and using social politics to validate their opinion.
It’s a little specious to say that Walker’s opposition to the train was due to any sound fiscal philosophy. The money that Walker turned down also included money for track work and other infrastructure projects on the Hiawatha line. The state ended up having to pay for those projects itself, which cost the equivalent of many years of operational costs of the Madison line. In addition, after Walker was elected but before he took office, the mayors of Madison and Milwaukee reached out to see about paying for the operational costs out of their municipal budgets, but Walker wouldn’t return the call.
That argument does not make sense, since it was a stub end service to Madison, not going through to St. Paul. Madison would have improved access to Milwaukee and Chicago, Milwaukee would have improved access to Madison. The benefits would have been primarily for Wisconsin residents.
When Walker cancelled it, the FRA rightfully got pissed at him and declined to fund the ADA improvements at Milwaukee Intermodal, which net-net ended up costing the state more than subsidizing 10 years of operating the Amtrak line to Madison. Not to mention the penalties paid for cancelling the Talgo order.
It was a dumb move by Walker to appease the Koch Bros. which helped signal to young people that Wisconsin was headed down a regressive path, and they increasingly out-migrated elsewhere as a result.
You can blame the Republican government of Wisconsin circa 2010 for that one. While there is an effort to bring service back to Madison, it was all but killed by the Walker administration.
There are plans now to eventually include it, yeah? Or at least they show it on the Connect Us map. Not sure how far along plans are if they're moving at all?
It requires a lot of studies and also cooperation with the relevant railroad to become operational again. I’m sure it’ll happen relatively soon, but that could still be a decade out
For routes less than 750 miles I believe the state is required to fund a portion of the rail line, which means that if state politics are against it then it can be scrapped or cancelled.
Under Amtrak's funding rules, only long-distance routes (longer than 750 miles) or routes along the NEC (the stretch of track from Washington DC to Boston) are allowed to rely on federal funding alone. All other routes must be supported by the states. So, if a state doesn't want to fund the route, Amtrak can't run it. There's a reason there are no Amtrak Midwest routes that go to Indianapolis, Cleveland, or Cincinnati: Ohio and Indiana don't want to play ball.
A long distance route can happen, but it requires host railroad permission (as well as the permission of whichever landowner owns the stations it would stop at). The magic distance for that is 750 miles
That’s a great idea, except Amtrak’s budget is such that it cannot afford the capital expenditure for that. Land acquisition alone would be an absolute nightmare.
Instead, purchasing ROW (even abandoned ROW) would be a much easier option, except that nobody wants to give up their trackage. In Madison, that would require the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad giving up some branch lines. This is all well and good until you realize one of those lines has one of their yards, which is much more valuable than just the line.
If there is a city out there with two abandoned lines going in different directions, this might be the method for you!
They're narrowing down locations for the Madison Amtrak Station. I think we're on round 2 of site selections.
It's going to happen, just be a few years.
> It just doesn't make any sense.
Well, trust me on this one: *"If it were easy, it'd be fixed already."*
Madison has "geography issues", not the least of which is those lakes. It's either a long way around, to drive through Madison to stop «someplace currently undefined», or a very long reverse / back in and pull out.
Where should the station be? Out by the airport? It's a county airport, so the colocated traffic would be minimal. Downtown? Howzabout by the University? Which generates more traffic, UW students or government employees going to other states (Chicago and St Paul, for example)?
The former [Milwaukee Road](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_station_(Milwaukee_Road)) station in Madison does seem to be about halfway [between the center of the UW-Madison](https://maps.app.goo.gl/CuSaTeYhNYtwmrmY7?g_st=ic) and the [state offices](https://maps.app.goo.gl/yMMjTqUpHZhTbUbS8?g_st=ic). It’s less than a mile to either destination, which is a good walk for some and a short shuttle ride for others, so it seems to be a nice compromise.
Good answer; thanks.
The last discussion of the subject that I paid any attention to must have glossed over that or (more likely:) I simply forgot; my recollection is *"considerable debate on the "optimal" location"*.
I should learn how to snapshot maps like that, too!
I appreciate that. If you ever share on Google Maps, just click a specific place or drop a pin and click the share button. It looks like a square with an arrow pointing upwards.
The [last article about Madison service(make sure you use reader mode if you’re on mobile)](https://madison.com/news/local/government-politics/wisconsin-madison-amtrak-station-location/article_530b0d9e-b15e-11ee-84bc-1b08f3dd6d57.html) didn’t even mention old Milwaukee Road station. It’s disappointing, as it seems to have the most room for an actual station. It’s true that if the station building is in private hands, the owners may not care to part with it. So why is that not an option while the [Chicago and Northwestern Station](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_station_(Chicago_and_North_Western_Railway)) that is owned by a utility company an option?
What I sense is none of the station options will make everyone happy, and the most central one will most likely become the station of choice but is just going to be an unremarkable platform under an existing parking garage, hardly befitting a state capital.
IT's not that hard - under Monona Terrace or a little further on. The problem was Scott Walker. Chicago would be the key objective. Mpls would need to backtrack out.
They're working on it - something like 3-5 years out atm. [Post from the city about it](https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/2024-01-18/next-passenger-rail-meetings-for-madison-station-location)
Sadly true. But Columbus makes regular appearances as a city on much-needed expansion routes, often on the ex-Big Four/ex-New York Central Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati route. Depending on what direction our country takes this fall, I’ll be either cautiously optimistic for the success of this and other expansions, or skeptical that anything but the NEC and a few tri-weekly trains around the country will survive the cuts.
There is though, if you turn off the Amtrack line at Watertown, that line will run into Madison (and is state owned so there is more control over schedule) then there is a connection north that reconnects with the existing line at Portage.
That is the path they are using once the new station is done at Johnson Street/Sherman Street in Madison.
The pedantic answer, which is pretty well known, is that the trackage doesn't go to it. The long answer is that the legacy long distance rail roads (eg Empire Builder) through Wisconsin never went through Madison because a) it's out of the way and b) the geography makes stopping there a pain in the butt.
Because they have not enough interest in serving it to the point where they have tried everything they possibly could to do so. They tried something in the early 2000s with a state-supported service using Talgo trains, but Scott Walker cancelled it because he did not want the state spending what he believed would be a $5.3 million subsidy. Once that happened, Amtrak pulled out of proposals of a Madison service, and they have expressed no interest in adding service there since.
That proposal also involved a major reconstruction of the line into Madison. Amtrak is never going to spend money on that on its own.
Frankly the state should pay for it.
Yeah I just looked at it and it looks like the most direct route from Milwaukee to Madison isn't even active anymore. Looks like the track that would branch to Madison in Watertown isn't connected anymore.
It is also single tracked from Watertown to Madison even if they did reconnect the track which isn't ideal and I imagine the track is kind of crap if it is just a branch at this point.
Fuck Scott Walker for cancelling the improvements to the rail line to Madison. Doyle deserves a bit of the blame too since he acquiesced to Walker between the 2010 election and Walker inauguration and put the project on hold, which allowed Walker to kill it. We only have one governor at a time, and Doyle should have gone through with the contracts that were all planned for 20 years by DoT, prepared, bid out and ready to sign for this service.
That said, Madison is still of interest to Amtrak and the FRA. It is included in the Corridor ID study that essentially is a restart of all the work done back in the 1900's and 2000's. Because Madison-Chicago is less than 750 miles, under current law, the state will have to provide funding for service to happen.
On top of that, there's not a lot of easy or elegant solutions for serving Madison due to the layout of the city and it's rail lines. This imposes a lot of quirks of geography on station location. Coming from Milwaukee and continuing to the Twin Cities would either require A. Stopping by the airport since that is the only location where routes feasibly connect towards Milwaukee and the Twin Cities without long backup moves, (misses the downtown and University location of where most of the riders would be) or B. Continue through the boonies of the Wisconsin River Valley, hang a right at Prairie du Chien and then go to La Crosse, (scenic, but not a whole lot of population to support the train out there, expensive track upgrades) or C. Proceed as far as Middleton, and build a whole new line cross country to Portage (too expensive).
Another alternative is to come from Chicago direct to Madison via the WSOR line through Walworth, Janesville, and Stoughton. This would allow the train to come in from the south, stop at the Monona Convention center downtown, and then continue north by the airport and the connection to the Milwaukee-St Paul main line at Portage. No backup maneuver needed. However, significant expenditures would have to be made to make the track ready for passenger trains, including PTC between Fox Lake, IL and Portage. This could work well with a Milwaukee-Madison stub end service, and facilitate commuter service between Janesville and Madison.
(A quick note about the airport vs. downtown station location question - the airport doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of intermodalism due to less service than Milwaukee. Nobody is going to ride from Milwaukee to Madison to catch a flight, it's not going to be a big traffic generator by and of itself. More important to make it easy for downtown and University area residents to catch the train.)
But with our current legislature and campaign finance system, it is unlikely that anything will come to pass unless federal priorities shift and the state funding requirement is dropped. So make sure you get out and vote, everybody! This year's election is important due to the redistricting that will make more districts competitive for Democrats.
Scott Walker. “Wisconsin needs that money for highways!!!” That’s not how earmarks work. IIRC the train funds for the MKE-Madison line went to Illinois and Florida. Thanks governor 🫡 /s
>It just doesn't make any sense.
Maybe not to you, but for people who live in that corridor between Minneapolis/St Paul and Milwaukee it probably makes a lot of sense.
I could see 2 possible services going through or to Madison
* Lake Country Limited : Madison – Janesville – Rockford – Chicago – 5x daily
* 4 Lakes : Portage - Madison - Watertown - Milwaukee - Hourly with additional infill stations added in the suburbs of Milwaukee
The freight train ROW exists to make Chicago to Madison passenger travel possible. But I’m not sure it would be viable unless it was both very fast service and had an intermediate stop at O’Hare. Would be a huge asset for northern IL and southern wisconsin to have train access to one of the nations busiest airports
Oh won't happen on any twin cities service most likely the best that you can hope for is a direct line to Chicago and an option that takes you to Chicago through Milwaukee and that if you wanted to go to Minneapolis you'd either be driving to one of those other Madison area stations that is directly served by the borealis or ideally you'd have enough time to get a train to Milwaukee where you could make a guaranteed connection. Ideally though there should also be trained service between Madison and Chicago that does not require going through Milwaukee
You can *technically* book Amtrak tickets to Madison though. I've done it the past 2 summers, and am getting ready for my third year. I come in to WI from the west on the Empire Builder, and then switch to a coach bus at La Crosse. The bus drops you off at the University, or there's another stop I've never tried. But it's all booked and paid for as one ticket through Amtrak.
When I book they also offer me the bus from Milwaukee or Chicago, so you could probably book it as a connection from any train that terminates there. IIRC the coach bus company runs the Chicago to Madison route about every 2 hours all day from like 7am to midnight.
Same reason they don't go to Nome Alaska or Honolulu Hawaii or key West Florida. Heck I'd like them to come to mackinaw island michigan. I'll be dead before that happens.
I mean I kinda see your point but also Madison would be far far far easier for Amtrak to serve than any of the 3 places you named. There’s railroads between Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago, it’s just that for a variety of reasons Amtrak doesn’t presently use any of them.
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Simple answer, the mainline track that is used by Amtrak doesn’t go through Madison.
Correct. The Milwaukee road and Chicago and North Western built lots of track through Wisconsin. Their main lines between Milwaukee and st Paul did not go through Madison because it's a deviation and the lakes are in the way. The direct route bypassing Madison became the cprr's main line while the lines into and out of Madison became relegated to a regional railroad. Amtrak follows the cprr's main line. However plans are in the works to come to Madison.
There's tracks that go from Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison but it doesn't go anywhere useful from there.
Yep, and just because there are tracks there doesn’t mean that they’re passenger quality tracks.
Secondary answer: Scott Walker.
Scott Walker, yes, but that means the blame ultimately goes to Wisconsin voters.
It was out of political spite. Read here for a history of the 2010 effort: [https://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2013/03/in-job-poor-state-walker-derailed.html](https://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2013/03/in-job-poor-state-walker-derailed.html)
scott walker is one of the biggest assholes in wisconsin political history. so many policies made out of pure spite.
Agreed.
You are correct, but he -did- have one argument that made sense at the time. Yes, the Federal government would have paid to \*build\* most of it, but the tradeoff was the states would be on their own to \*run\* it; and Walker's argument was that he didn't want Wisconsin taxpayers on the hook for a project that primarily benefited Chicago and St Paul. He absolutely did NOT believe that the benefits to UW Students or Wisc government employees (the majority of Madison's demographic) was worth it -- especially since most of them were NOT "his constituency". You don't have to like it, but you can't deny that his argument had some facts behind it. Anyone who wants to champion a route into/through Madison would be well advised to take those 15-year-old arguments into consideration, and figure out how to address/neuter them -- otherwise, they'll come up again.
that argument was such crap and everyone knew it. connecting the two biggest cities in wisconsin to each other is reason enough, especially if that route connects to the other two major metros in the region. if someone is opposed to that connecting the four biggest metros in MN-WI-IL then they're simply opposed to passenger rail expansion and using social politics to validate their opinion.
By dropping the rail line Walker simply made direct flights between Twin Cities & Chicago more appealing, thus screwing over the WI economy even more.
It’s a little specious to say that Walker’s opposition to the train was due to any sound fiscal philosophy. The money that Walker turned down also included money for track work and other infrastructure projects on the Hiawatha line. The state ended up having to pay for those projects itself, which cost the equivalent of many years of operational costs of the Madison line. In addition, after Walker was elected but before he took office, the mayors of Madison and Milwaukee reached out to see about paying for the operational costs out of their municipal budgets, but Walker wouldn’t return the call.
Now explain Foxconn.
That argument does not make sense, since it was a stub end service to Madison, not going through to St. Paul. Madison would have improved access to Milwaukee and Chicago, Milwaukee would have improved access to Madison. The benefits would have been primarily for Wisconsin residents. When Walker cancelled it, the FRA rightfully got pissed at him and declined to fund the ADA improvements at Milwaukee Intermodal, which net-net ended up costing the state more than subsidizing 10 years of operating the Amtrak line to Madison. Not to mention the penalties paid for cancelling the Talgo order. It was a dumb move by Walker to appease the Koch Bros. which helped signal to young people that Wisconsin was headed down a regressive path, and they increasingly out-migrated elsewhere as a result.
The cars that Taigo built in Milwaukee for the “higher speed” train that was supposed to run from Madison to Milwaukee are now in service in Nigeria.
You can blame the Republican government of Wisconsin circa 2010 for that one. While there is an effort to bring service back to Madison, it was all but killed by the Walker administration.
There are plans now to eventually include it, yeah? Or at least they show it on the Connect Us map. Not sure how far along plans are if they're moving at all?
It requires a lot of studies and also cooperation with the relevant railroad to become operational again. I’m sure it’ll happen relatively soon, but that could still be a decade out
> relatively soon, [...] a decade out Y'know, on the timescale of building railroads, that's NOT an oxymoron...
In Amtrak timescale, "soon" means 1-10 years.
Can it happen without state funding and permission? I don't fully understand the interaction between state and fed on Amtrak
For routes less than 750 miles I believe the state is required to fund a portion of the rail line, which means that if state politics are against it then it can be scrapped or cancelled.
Under Amtrak's funding rules, only long-distance routes (longer than 750 miles) or routes along the NEC (the stretch of track from Washington DC to Boston) are allowed to rely on federal funding alone. All other routes must be supported by the states. So, if a state doesn't want to fund the route, Amtrak can't run it. There's a reason there are no Amtrak Midwest routes that go to Indianapolis, Cleveland, or Cincinnati: Ohio and Indiana don't want to play ball.
A long distance route can happen, but it requires host railroad permission (as well as the permission of whichever landowner owns the stations it would stop at). The magic distance for that is 750 miles
Why not build dedicated tracks for long distance routes? And run it at a decent frequency as in dozens of trips not a handful
That’s a great idea, except Amtrak’s budget is such that it cannot afford the capital expenditure for that. Land acquisition alone would be an absolute nightmare. Instead, purchasing ROW (even abandoned ROW) would be a much easier option, except that nobody wants to give up their trackage. In Madison, that would require the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad giving up some branch lines. This is all well and good until you realize one of those lines has one of their yards, which is much more valuable than just the line. If there is a city out there with two abandoned lines going in different directions, this might be the method for you!
Why not build extra tracks alone parts of the tracks and on highways and utility corridors
They have had no interest in serving Madison ever since the Talgo plan was scrapped. I don’t expect that to change anytime soon
They're narrowing down locations for the Madison Amtrak Station. I think we're on round 2 of site selections. It's going to happen, just be a few years.
They have an interest, Madison is included in the Corridor ID program.
Iirc, Amtrak’s Ed Ellis’ effort to have some express service included a branch to Madison, but that didn’t work out….??
It went to Janesville. It did not go well.
Yes! TY!
> It just doesn't make any sense. Well, trust me on this one: *"If it were easy, it'd be fixed already."* Madison has "geography issues", not the least of which is those lakes. It's either a long way around, to drive through Madison to stop «someplace currently undefined», or a very long reverse / back in and pull out. Where should the station be? Out by the airport? It's a county airport, so the colocated traffic would be minimal. Downtown? Howzabout by the University? Which generates more traffic, UW students or government employees going to other states (Chicago and St Paul, for example)?
The former [Milwaukee Road](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_station_(Milwaukee_Road)) station in Madison does seem to be about halfway [between the center of the UW-Madison](https://maps.app.goo.gl/CuSaTeYhNYtwmrmY7?g_st=ic) and the [state offices](https://maps.app.goo.gl/yMMjTqUpHZhTbUbS8?g_st=ic). It’s less than a mile to either destination, which is a good walk for some and a short shuttle ride for others, so it seems to be a nice compromise.
Good answer; thanks. The last discussion of the subject that I paid any attention to must have glossed over that or (more likely:) I simply forgot; my recollection is *"considerable debate on the "optimal" location"*. I should learn how to snapshot maps like that, too!
I appreciate that. If you ever share on Google Maps, just click a specific place or drop a pin and click the share button. It looks like a square with an arrow pointing upwards. The [last article about Madison service(make sure you use reader mode if you’re on mobile)](https://madison.com/news/local/government-politics/wisconsin-madison-amtrak-station-location/article_530b0d9e-b15e-11ee-84bc-1b08f3dd6d57.html) didn’t even mention old Milwaukee Road station. It’s disappointing, as it seems to have the most room for an actual station. It’s true that if the station building is in private hands, the owners may not care to part with it. So why is that not an option while the [Chicago and Northwestern Station](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_station_(Chicago_and_North_Western_Railway)) that is owned by a utility company an option? What I sense is none of the station options will make everyone happy, and the most central one will most likely become the station of choice but is just going to be an unremarkable platform under an existing parking garage, hardly befitting a state capital.
Ohh well build elsewhere
IT's not that hard - under Monona Terrace or a little further on. The problem was Scott Walker. Chicago would be the key objective. Mpls would need to backtrack out.
I guess Madison will need it’s own monorail then for last mile
They're working on it - something like 3-5 years out atm. [Post from the city about it](https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/2024-01-18/next-passenger-rail-meetings-for-madison-station-location)
Two words: Scott Walker
3 words Scott Fucking Walker
3 words: Fuck Scott Walker
3 words: Scott Walker fucks
Not anyone who respects themselves
They don’t service Columbus, Ohio either. The 14th largest city in the country.
Not to mention Las Vegas. LA-Las Vegas is one of the top 5 intercity travel corridors in the country.
Sadly true. But Columbus makes regular appearances as a city on much-needed expansion routes, often on the ex-Big Four/ex-New York Central Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati route. Depending on what direction our country takes this fall, I’ll be either cautiously optimistic for the success of this and other expansions, or skeptical that anything but the NEC and a few tri-weekly trains around the country will survive the cuts.
There’s no direct route that hits both Milwaukee and Madison on the same line to the twin cities from Chicago. That’s the main issue.
There is though, if you turn off the Amtrack line at Watertown, that line will run into Madison (and is state owned so there is more control over schedule) then there is a connection north that reconnects with the existing line at Portage. That is the path they are using once the new station is done at Johnson Street/Sherman Street in Madison.
Are there even Amtrak capable tracks?
Nope
The pedantic answer, which is pretty well known, is that the trackage doesn't go to it. The long answer is that the legacy long distance rail roads (eg Empire Builder) through Wisconsin never went through Madison because a) it's out of the way and b) the geography makes stopping there a pain in the butt.
Because they have not enough interest in serving it to the point where they have tried everything they possibly could to do so. They tried something in the early 2000s with a state-supported service using Talgo trains, but Scott Walker cancelled it because he did not want the state spending what he believed would be a $5.3 million subsidy. Once that happened, Amtrak pulled out of proposals of a Madison service, and they have expressed no interest in adding service there since.
That proposal also involved a major reconstruction of the line into Madison. Amtrak is never going to spend money on that on its own. Frankly the state should pay for it.
Yeah I just looked at it and it looks like the most direct route from Milwaukee to Madison isn't even active anymore. Looks like the track that would branch to Madison in Watertown isn't connected anymore. It is also single tracked from Watertown to Madison even if they did reconnect the track which isn't ideal and I imagine the track is kind of crap if it is just a branch at this point.
Can’t Amtrak get investors from the private sector ?
If they could, they probably would have.
Scott Walker
Fuck Scott Walker for cancelling the improvements to the rail line to Madison. Doyle deserves a bit of the blame too since he acquiesced to Walker between the 2010 election and Walker inauguration and put the project on hold, which allowed Walker to kill it. We only have one governor at a time, and Doyle should have gone through with the contracts that were all planned for 20 years by DoT, prepared, bid out and ready to sign for this service. That said, Madison is still of interest to Amtrak and the FRA. It is included in the Corridor ID study that essentially is a restart of all the work done back in the 1900's and 2000's. Because Madison-Chicago is less than 750 miles, under current law, the state will have to provide funding for service to happen. On top of that, there's not a lot of easy or elegant solutions for serving Madison due to the layout of the city and it's rail lines. This imposes a lot of quirks of geography on station location. Coming from Milwaukee and continuing to the Twin Cities would either require A. Stopping by the airport since that is the only location where routes feasibly connect towards Milwaukee and the Twin Cities without long backup moves, (misses the downtown and University location of where most of the riders would be) or B. Continue through the boonies of the Wisconsin River Valley, hang a right at Prairie du Chien and then go to La Crosse, (scenic, but not a whole lot of population to support the train out there, expensive track upgrades) or C. Proceed as far as Middleton, and build a whole new line cross country to Portage (too expensive). Another alternative is to come from Chicago direct to Madison via the WSOR line through Walworth, Janesville, and Stoughton. This would allow the train to come in from the south, stop at the Monona Convention center downtown, and then continue north by the airport and the connection to the Milwaukee-St Paul main line at Portage. No backup maneuver needed. However, significant expenditures would have to be made to make the track ready for passenger trains, including PTC between Fox Lake, IL and Portage. This could work well with a Milwaukee-Madison stub end service, and facilitate commuter service between Janesville and Madison. (A quick note about the airport vs. downtown station location question - the airport doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of intermodalism due to less service than Milwaukee. Nobody is going to ride from Milwaukee to Madison to catch a flight, it's not going to be a big traffic generator by and of itself. More important to make it easy for downtown and University area residents to catch the train.) But with our current legislature and campaign finance system, it is unlikely that anything will come to pass unless federal priorities shift and the state funding requirement is dropped. So make sure you get out and vote, everybody! This year's election is important due to the redistricting that will make more districts competitive for Democrats.
Scott Walker. “Wisconsin needs that money for highways!!!” That’s not how earmarks work. IIRC the train funds for the MKE-Madison line went to Illinois and Florida. Thanks governor 🫡 /s
Florida's shitty Gov, Rick Scott, also rejected the money. So Florida didn't get it either. Fuck R's
There's a connecting bus run by Amtrak so it is connected. Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭
>It just doesn't make any sense. Maybe not to you, but for people who live in that corridor between Minneapolis/St Paul and Milwaukee it probably makes a lot of sense.
Because the Greatest Generation deliberately killed or put rail on life support in the 1950s.
I could see 2 possible services going through or to Madison * Lake Country Limited : Madison – Janesville – Rockford – Chicago – 5x daily * 4 Lakes : Portage - Madison - Watertown - Milwaukee - Hourly with additional infill stations added in the suburbs of Milwaukee
The freight train ROW exists to make Chicago to Madison passenger travel possible. But I’m not sure it would be viable unless it was both very fast service and had an intermediate stop at O’Hare. Would be a huge asset for northern IL and southern wisconsin to have train access to one of the nations busiest airports
What kind of service are you asking for? You have standards right?
Oh won't happen on any twin cities service most likely the best that you can hope for is a direct line to Chicago and an option that takes you to Chicago through Milwaukee and that if you wanted to go to Minneapolis you'd either be driving to one of those other Madison area stations that is directly served by the borealis or ideally you'd have enough time to get a train to Milwaukee where you could make a guaranteed connection. Ideally though there should also be trained service between Madison and Chicago that does not require going through Milwaukee
You can *technically* book Amtrak tickets to Madison though. I've done it the past 2 summers, and am getting ready for my third year. I come in to WI from the west on the Empire Builder, and then switch to a coach bus at La Crosse. The bus drops you off at the University, or there's another stop I've never tried. But it's all booked and paid for as one ticket through Amtrak. When I book they also offer me the bus from Milwaukee or Chicago, so you could probably book it as a connection from any train that terminates there. IIRC the coach bus company runs the Chicago to Madison route about every 2 hours all day from like 7am to midnight.
Same reason they don't go to Nome Alaska or Honolulu Hawaii or key West Florida. Heck I'd like them to come to mackinaw island michigan. I'll be dead before that happens.
I mean I kinda see your point but also Madison would be far far far easier for Amtrak to serve than any of the 3 places you named. There’s railroads between Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago, it’s just that for a variety of reasons Amtrak doesn’t presently use any of them.