With efforts to bring passenger rail service to Madison once again gaining momentum, the city has identified eight potential sites for a rail station, located along three corridors Downtown, near the coming Madison Public Market and by the former Oscar Mayer plant.
A proposed Milwaukee to Madison to Minneapolis Amtrak route is one of five in Wisconsin getting $500,000 federal planning grants with the routes selected as priorities for passenger rail expansion.
“Restoring Amtrak service to Madison is long overdue and I’m so thankful to the Biden administration for investing in Wisconsin’s passenger rail future,” Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said. “The city is committed to moving this forward in any way we can, including identifying the best site for an Amtrak station.”
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The city and national consultant HNTB, which has offices in Wisconsin, have explored six corridors and recommend advancing three of them — Downtown/Isthmus, First Street near the Public Market, and around Oscar Mayer — for further evaluation. The study recommends dropping three other corridors — the UW-Madison campus, the East Side near Starkweather Creek and by Dane County Regional Airport.
The study looked at ridership potential, rail operations, access and multimodal connections, land use and development, and equitable access.
Within the three recommended corridors are eight potential station sites with the city looking at space for an approximate 3,200-square-foot station, a desired 700 feet of track, ADA requirements, and train layover and servicing.
The sites are at Monona Terrace, Blair Street, Livingston Street, Baldwin Street, First Street, Johnson Street, Commercial Avenue and Aberg Avenue.
Each site has opportunities and challenges, city transportation director Tom Lynch and project manager Liz Callin said. The goal is to identify a location that meets the technical needs of the station, acknowledges ridership potential, and balances community priorities, they said.
Madison is part of the proposed Milwaukee to Minneapolis route that also includes Eau Claire. It would be new service on an existing alignment.
The other four state projects include expanding the existing Hiawatha service between Chicago and Milwaukee to Green Bay; adding service on the existing Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago; new service between Eau Claire and St. Paul, Minnesota, on an existing alignment; and adding service from La Crosse to St. Paul on the long-distance Empire Builder that runs from Chicago through La Crosse.
The preliminary study will be presented to the city Transportation Commission at an online meeting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Additional public meetings are being scheduled for late January and early February.
Madison already has been studying a potential station, which would provide access to pedestrians, bikes, buses and vehicles, and be a catalyst for economic development, officials have said.
The sites being considered:
Downtown/Isthmus corridor
Monona Terrace.
- The station and the waiting area would be incorporated into the Wisconsin Department of Administration building, 101 E. Wilson St., with new passenger track and a 700-foot platform extended under the convention center parking garage.
Blair Street.
- The station, new passenger track, a 500-foot platform, drop-off, and possible new development would be located at Blair Street between the existing railroad tracks and Williamson Street on the Near East Side.
Livingston Street.
- The station, new passenger track, drop-off and short-term parking, and a 580-foot platform would be located at the corner where Livingston Street intersects with the existing track, just north of the Capital City Trail on the Near East Side.
Baldwin Street.
- The station, short-term parking, new passenger track, a 450-foot platform and possible expansion of McPike Park would be on Baldwin Street between the existing track and East Wilson Street on the Near East Side.
- First Street corridor
First Street.
- The station, drop-off, new passenger track and a 400-foot platform would be next to the Public Market, 200 N. First St., where East Johnson Street intersects with existing tracks on the East Side.
Johnson Street.
- The station, drop-off, new passenger track, a 700-foot platform, a shared-use garage, and possible development would be located in a triangle-shaped area between Johnson Street and existing tracks on the East Side.
Oscar Mayer corridor
Commercial Avenue.
- The station, short-term and long-term parking, new passenger track, a 700-foot platform, and an intercity bus stop would be located on Commercial Avenue between existing track and to the south of Ruskin Street on the East Side.
Aberg Avenue.
- The station, short-term parking, a shared-use garage, new passenger track, a 700-foot platform, an intercity bus stop and possible development would be located off Roth Street between Huxley Street and existing tracks on the East Side.
“Generally, sites closer to Downtown have greater ridership potential and are closer to the city’s most popular visitor destinations,” Lynch said. “Sites farther from Downtown tend to have better train operations and may provide greater opportunities for parking.”
The Downtown/Isthmus sites, for example, have the most people within a short walk, bike ride or transit trip, the most jobs, hotel rooms, and access for underserved populations, the study says.
But Monona Terrace is the longest distance from Milwaukee and trains would be serviced off-site. Blair Street and Livingston Street need partnerships with private landowners. And Baldwin Street would require trains to stop on a track switch and need to back out, requiring more time.
At First Street, the project could collaborate with the Public Market, but stopping a train on a curve between two streets is not optimal, Callin said. Johnson Street could accommodate a full program with a large platform, even providing opportunities for future expansion, but the site is being actively marketed so project timelines may not mesh, she said.
Commercial Avenue would accommodate all program needs with extra room to provide parking, but it’s far from Downtown, with weak multimodal connections, she said. At Aberg Avenue, the city has a lease on the large site and redevelopment could promote the city’s vision for the Oscar Mayer area, but it has low proximity to popular visitor destinations, she said.
An in-person public meeting is set for 5 p.m. Jan. 30 in Room 215 of the Madison Municipal Building, with an online meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 6.
The city expects corridor evaluation to be done by late 2024 with planning for a site in 2025-26, corridor development in 2026-28, and design and construction in 2028-31.
Long a dream
The city has been considering a passenger rail route and station site for more than two decades, with momentum building in the early 2000s and again a decade later.
The state was in line to get $810 million in federal funding to build a Madison-to-Milwaukee high-speed rail system — a proposal supported in 2010 by then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat.
In the fall of 2010, then-Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s proposed capital budget envisioned a $12 million passenger rail station at the state’s Department of Administration Building as part of a larger redevelopment initiative south of Capitol Square.
But Doyle’s successor, former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, rejected the federal funds in 2011. Walker later sought $150 million to upgrade Amtrak’s Hiawatha line from Chicago and Milwaukee to Madison, but the funding was denied.
In early April 2021, Amtrak released what officials called an “aspirational map” detailing a vision for 2035. That map included proposals for new routes with stops in Madison, Eau Claire and Green Bay, which reignited the prospect of expanded passenger rail service in the state.