Madison passenger rail station kickoff meeting draws crowd

City officials welcome public feedback on train location but caution that several factors will be in play

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The crowd that showed up to learn about the potential for passenger rail in Madison seemed to catch city officials by surprise.

“We put out chairs for 20 people thinking we’d get 10,” said Tom Lynch, the city’s director of transportation, at the start of the Dec. 7 rail kickoff meeting at the Madison Muncipal Building, which drew more than 100 people (a Zoom presentation was also held later). 

In her opening remarks, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said city leaders were interested in hearing feedback from the public about where a train station would be located in Madison if the city were to join the existing route between Milwaukee and Chicago, also known as the Hiawatha route. But she cautioned that a number of factors would play into a final decision.

“At the end of the day, we have to pick a station that works for Amtrak and that works for the Federal Railroad Administration,” Rhodes-Conway said. “That’s sort of the bottom line.”

Six general locations for the station have been identified: near the Dane County Regional Airport; a stretch by the old Oscar Mayer plant; a section of First Street; the Near East Side neighborhood; downtown; and the UW-Madison campus. 

The city has hired engineering consultant HNTB to conduct a study to recommend a site, and representatives at the meeting said they are considering local community needs, in addition to Amtrak guidelines, for assessing potential locations. 

Carolyn Seboe, the planning group director for HNTB, said the final location needs to accommodate a 700-foot-long platform without blocking any important local roadways. The ideal station location, she said, would also have space for short- and long-term parking, passenger dropoff and pickup areas, and provide connections for intercity bus, pedestrian and bicycle travel.

In reviewing the potential station locations, Aaron Bowe, senior rail engineer for HNTB, said the Near East Side neighborhood has “good geometry” for a station and the area near the airport would allow for “multimodal connectivity,” although these spaces aren’t “as close to the city as we may want it.” Bowe also noted that while the section of First Street is closer to downtown Madison, there are “geometric challenges” that come with building a station on that designated, curved part of the street.

With about 30 minutes left for the meeting, officials entertained questions from the public. One attendee asked how the Near East Side and airport locations would be made accessible to those who don’t have vehicles: “Parking isn’t everything, and so I’m wondering what other opportunities there might be to increase transit, so that we actually get the ridership to a station?” 

In response, city transportation planner Mike Cechvala emphasized transit access is one of the factors HNTB is considering in the rail station study. Ultimately, though, the route would need to be as “direct” as possible, he said.

Ald. Charles Myadze, who represents north Madison, asked how people of color would be engaged throughout this process.

Lynch said the $120,000 that was used to commision the passenger rail study was a relatively small amount of funding, so only city staff would be consulted at this stage. There will be more funding in the 2023 budget, Lynch added, which will allow the city to “enlist additional resources” to seek input from Madison communities.

Philip Gritzmacher, Madison’s transportation planner, said the city will hold another public meeting in February, at which point they plan to have the options narrowed down, and a final meeting in April where a single recommended station location would be announced. In the meantime, he recommended that members of the public submit feedback via email as soon as possible in order for it to be considered in this phase of the process. 

Gritzmacher said city leaders are currently focused on applying for admission to the Corridor Identification and Development Program — an opportunity they expect to become available this month. If accepted into the Corridor ID Program, Madison would receive funding and federal support for project planning and development. 

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has allocated $66 billion for new and improved rail service, which Gritzmacher said is a significant increase over the typical budget for rail service — normally about $2 billion.

Getting into this program and receiving federal funding, Grtizmacher said, would make this “all real.”