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As Wisconsin and Milwaukee officials keep alive the concept of commercial development around American Family Field, a rail advocacy group suggests a new Amtrak passenger station should be built there, as well.
That could be studied in more detail if the Wisconsin Department of Transportation this year successfully secures federal grants to plan for Amtrak service to Madison and Green Bay from Milwaukee. Either of those new routes would likely run passenger trains on existing Canadian Pacific Kansas City freight track right past Selig Drive and the Yount parking lot of American Family Field.
Adding a passenger station there is possible from a technical standpoint and has been floated by the nonprofit NEWRails, or Northeastern Wisconsin Rail Advocacy Group, which is supporting new Amtrak service between Milwaukee and Green Bay.
“We believe that what’s good for Milwaukee, for Madison, whatever is good for promoting passenger rail, is good for the whole state,” said Larry Rueff, municipal and legislative liaison for NEWRails, which has about 400 people on its current membership mailing list.
At this point, the station is a concept only without active government planning effort behind it. There’s a long process of public hearings, planning, engineering and budgeting ahead, and that’s even if federal money is secured for the proposed new Amtrak service to Madison or Green Bay.
Agreements would need to be worked out with Canadian Pacific Kansas City, which owns the track itself. A specific site would also have to be identified, which could be tricky since the railroad track curves north right next to American Family Field, and stations are best located on a straightaway.
But the general idea is that Amtrak trains running west from the downtown Milwaukee Intermodal Station could stop at a station outside American Family Field before the track turns north toward Green Bay or splits off west for a new Madison service.
Real estate firms, especially those with a national scope, see value in those transit connections. A train station could complement the idea of new commercial development in the parking lots the Brewers lease around AmFam Field. The state proposal to provide public money for maintenance of American Family Field sets a two-year deadline for a development study to be completed by the public-private district that maintains the stadium, with input from Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee.
The stadium funding bill awaits a vote by the Wisconsin Senate next week after gaining Assembly approval on Oct. 17.
Collaboration over the stadium package at the state level is helping the Amtrak station concept resurface, Rueff said, but it’s been around already. He said he submitted the idea to the DOT as it collected public input this year on the statewide 2050 rail plan. He said that was “long before this great resolution of the funding” for American Family Field.
“It’s been going on for a little while, and one reason it is surfacing again is because of that cooperation,” he said.
That 2050 long-range rail plan includes the concept of new Amtrak passenger service linking Milwaukee to Madison and Green Bay. Those represent separate projects. Both were included in the Wisconsin DOT’s March application to the Federal Railroad Administration’s nationwide Corridor Identification and Development Program. Announcements of selected projects are expected this year.
If Wisconsin is selected, that would kick off a more detailed planning process for the new service that would include selecting sites for stations. While the Milwaukee Intermodal Station located downtown is the likely starting point, the possibilities beyond that are open, with the DOT at most recommending cities, not properties, along the route for possible stops.
Wisconsin DOT chief of railroads and harbors Lisa Stern said the “options are still open and will be considered through the Corridor ID program.”
The NEWRails organization has supported the Corridor ID application and is part of the statewide Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers, which is planning a meeting in West Allis on Oct. 28 with presentations by Amtrak and DOT’s Stern.
The DOT’s hoped-for Amtrak route planning isn’t the only transportation project that could impact land around AmFam Field.
The planned reconstruction of Interstate 94 east-west and the Stadium Interchange would take away some of the state-owned land currently used for American Family Field parking. The state’s updated environmental impact statement anticipates the preferred plan for the Stadium Interchange requires the DOT take over “12 acres of existing parking and remove approximately 610 parking spaces for fans and 890 parking spaces for staff, mainly south of I-94.”
Dan Sellers, Wisconsin DOT communications manager for the southeast region, in an emailed statement said the numbers could change as the plan is refined.
“We continue to coordinate closely with the Brewers and the Stadium District on how things can potentially come together as design progresses,” Sellers said. “During construction there will likely be some temporary loss/adjustments of available parking in the area, but the project team is still working out what the end result will look like after the project is built.”