MORE RESERVATIONS ABOUT THAT MADISON TRAIN. I noted some last week. James Rowen raises the same questions.

People are noticing that putting the Madison high-speed rail station at the airport on the far NE side of town discourages riders interested in using the service between Milwaukee and Madison.

The article he links expands.

The problem with a downtown Madison station is that this train line isn't just a Milwaukee-to-Madison route, a state official says. It's intended to become a segment of a longer route that would eventually run all the way from Chicago to the Twin Cities, as part of a Midwestern network of fast, frequent trains. And a side trip through the capital city's crowded isthmus and back again would eat up too much time for travelers continuing beyond Madison, said Randy Wade, the state Department of Transportation's passenger rail manager.

To reach downtown Madison, trains would have to slow down on their way through numerous crossings, then back up all the way to the airport to leave town, Wade said. That also would boost the cost of the route, he said. Wade did not have figures on how much time or money a downtown spur would add.

Danielsen said he would be happy with a connecting local train, like the St. Louis light rail line that connects that city's downtown to its airport. And planners have considered running a Dane County commuter train to the airport. But the current plan for that $250 million project is to run from Middleton to downtown to Sun Prairie, bypassing the airport.

Ah, the problems with intentions. Chicago to the Twin Cities by way of Milwaukee, Madison, and La Crosse is going the Great Way Round: the more direct way through Milwaukee would go directly to Portage, while the more direct way through Madison would bypass Milwaukee and head to Eau Claire rather than La Crosse. Think Indians and numbers ending in two zeroes. We thus end up with one high-speed line, maybe, that, in attempting to give each constituency a little something, ends up with a project that pleases nobody. And if the Madison service becomes operational in the first four years of the Obama administration, and he goes the way of Jimmy Carter, the high speed service terminates at the airport for all time. The Chicago - New York Electric Air Line at least had the sense to build connecting lines into Gary and LaPorte where, well, passengers lived, and it built an Electric Park near Westville. That kept some money coming in long after plans to continue west to Chicago and east to Akron failed.

Alas, a connecting line into central Madison gets burdened with everything that's involved in public enterprise.

The Sun Prairie route was chosen because it could better serve commuters, Madison city transportation planner Dave Trowbridge said. The airport route has not been ruled out, however, and could be added as a spur in the future, he said.

But at the rate the projects are moving, the Milwaukee-to-Madison train is likely to be running before the commuter rail system completes its initial line, let alone an extension, Trowbridge said.

As a result, train travelers heading for downtown Madison are most likely to complete their trip by bus, Trowbridge said. Madison Metro Transit now has a local route to the airport, but a train station would likely lead to creation of a direct shuttle to downtown, operated by either the bus system or a private business, he said.

I just opened my June 1954 Official Guide to page 994, the time table for The Milwaukee Road's Madison service via Watertown. Train 33, the On Wisconsin: d Watertown 8.34, Waterloo 8.51, Marshall 8.57, Sun Prairie 9.12, Franklin Street 9.35, Madison 9.42. How hard would it be to through-route the fasts on the commuter line, at least until it's clear that the extension west of Madison to the Cities is in the works? Or to light a fire under the government agencies that are entangling the commuter line in endless process?