Madison and Milwaukee: rail-free zone

Jim Rowen addresses the rail issue in a new post at the Xoff Files.

Today, if you take Amtrak from Milwaukee to Minneapolis, you won't be stopping in Madison along the way. This is rather odd considering the amount of commuting that goes on between Wisconsin's two largest cities.


Passenger rail between Madison and Milwaukee is part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. It would call for high speed rail transit up to 110 mph between major cities like St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit, and the Twin Cities. In addition, there would spurs to mid-sized cities in the region.

Unfortunately, considering the number Congress and the president have done on the federal budget, that plan has been on the back burner. There's more info on the rail initiative available in a September 2004 report available in PDF format on the WisDOT website.