REGIONAL RAIL RETURNING TO WISCONSIN?

With the coming of Amtrak the privately-operated passenger trains serving Madison and Green Bay made their last runs.  Over the years, Wisconsin politicians, primarily Democrats, have sought the return of passenger trains connecting Madison with Milwaukee and on to Chicago, and with a Democrat in the White House (with a transportation secretary from McKinsey and here to help you) they're wishing for one again.  Republican politicians, including former governor and later Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson, did support the Madison train.  There is a positive case for extending the Hiawatha service to Madison, but it's on local Passenger Rail advocates to make that case.

All that printed public money going around though has advocates in the Fox Valley seeking a piece of the action.

Municipal leaders in seven northeast Wisconsin cities are asking federal authorities to consider creating an Amtrak passenger rail line from Milwaukee to Green Bay.

Officials in Appleton, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Kaukauna, Menasha and Neenah signed a letter to the Federal Railroad Administration on Dec. 9.

Municipal leaders requested the region be incorporated into the federal administration’s Corridor Identification and Development program, an initiative included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that aims to identify new passenger-rail corridors.

"This new passenger rail corridor would provide residents of Green Bay and the greater Fox Valley region with increased mobility options to the state’s largest city, as well as service to Chicago," the letter reads. "A Green Bay — Milwaukee — Chicago Amtrak service would create new connections between major metropolitan cities, medium-sized cities, and colleges and universities."

Local officials hope to expand Amtrak’s Hiawatha line, which runs from Milwaukee to Chicago, as outlined in Amtrak’s ConnectUS plan. The expansion would include four new stations in Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton and Green Bay, as well as three daily round trips from Green Bay to Chicago.

Unfortunately, the direct line between Milwaukee and Fond du Lac, via West Bend, was torn up some years ago, and the planned routing via Duplainville would put any such trains at the mercy of Canadian National, whose cooperation with Illinois on the Carbondale service has been of the dog-in-the-manger variety of late; and that routing involves a single track with a nasty grade from Fond du Lac to Byron confronting southbound trains.  It's probably too much to ask for internal improvements such as a separation of freight and passenger trains between Milwaukee and Chicago, with an upgraded Freight Main that used to be double track through Wisconsin and Illinois.

With those three Green Bay trains, as well as at least a second frequency to the Cities, and some Madison trains, perhaps whoever is conceiving these trains will give thought to connectivity.  Years ago, the Chicago and North Western timed its Chicago-bound Twin Cities 400 to connect at Milwaukee with the Peninsula 400 for Green Bay and Ishpeming, and that Green Bay service was quite a corridor operation.  In later years, a connection between the Afternoon Hiawatha and the Peninsula was possible using the joint Milwaukee station made necessary by expressway construction that claimed both older station sites.  That ought to be an option for passengers on any such service, should it materialize.