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Source: City of Madison Transportation Commission
Jan 15, 2024, 1:07 PM CST
MADISON, Wis. (WMDX) – Madison officials have identified eight potential sites to put an Amtrak passenger rail station in Madison. City officials have been studying the best place to put a potential station in Madison, and will present their full findings to the city’s Transportation Commission on Wednesday.
Last month, Wisconsin was awarded half a million dollars in federal funds to study a potential expansion of Amtrak’s Hiawatha line, which would connect Chicago to Milwaukee, to Madison, and over to Minneapolis. While a passenger rail to Madison is not yet a sure thing, identifying where to put a station in Madison is one of the first steps to making passenger rail in Madison a reality.
The eight locations for a potential station are at Monona Terrace, Blair Street, Livingston Street, Baldwin Street, First Street, Johnson Street, Commercial Avenue, and Aberg Avenue. Officials originally also looked at sites near the UW-Madison campus and the Dane County Regional Airport, but ruled them out due to either the difficulty of placing a rail station there, available land to build a station, or proximity to amenities and public transportation.
The final site will have to meet several requirements in order for a station to be built there. An Amtrak station is typically around 3,200 square feet, with room for around 700 feet of tracks and platform for the train to stop and pick up passengers. It would also need to be able to meet ADA requirements, and have space for overnight train storage, crew accommodations, and other amenities.
Officials also look at a site’s proximity to multiple modes of transportation, be it by car, bike, bus, or walking, in order to maximize the amount of people who would be able to easily utilize the passenger train. Officials are also looking to make the station as equitable as possible, and able to serve as many underserved people in Madison as possible.
All of the potential sites have their upsides and drawbacks. While the Monona Terrace and Blair Street locations could serve the most people, they would also be in the heart of the already heavily developed downtown area, meaning that there would be little room for expansion. And while the Commercial Avenue and Aberg Avenue locations would have room for expansion and be close to the already existing lines, they also sit in lower-populated areas, and have few amenities nearby.
The city’s Transportation Commission will hear the full results of the study at their online meeting this Wednesday at 5PM. The city is also holding two public information meetings on a potential passenger rail station, one in-person on January 30 at the Madison Municipal Building and another on February 6 online.
City officials expect to identify a site by the end of the year. If the expansion of Amtrak’s Hiawatha Line continues on schedule, construction of a passenger rail station in Madison would begin around 2028.
