HNTB / City of Madison Transportation / Google Earth
A potential site on Blair Street for Madison's Amtrak station.
Blair Street is one of several sites being considered for a Madison Amtrak station.
Dave Poklinkoski lives on a quiet side street on Madison’s east side in view of the Yahara River. His house also sits next to railroad tracks owned by Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, or WSOR. Only a few freight trains pass by each day now, but Poklinkoski worries about the impacts if passenger rail service returns to Madison.
“I don’t think bringing Amtrak to Madison is a bad idea,” says Poklinkoski, a retired utility operator and union representative. But “it’s really important that the neighborhood and community have some understanding of what’s going on and some input. Right now there are a lot of questions that are unanswered.”
Noise is one of Poklinkoski’s top concerns. “The noise of the train itself is not an issue,” he says. “The issue is the horns blowing.” Federal regulations require that trains use their horns when going through crossings, and city staffers overseeing the train project say a passenger rail line in Madison might have four to six round trips scheduled per day. “That’s a lot more horn blowing than we have going on now.”
Poklinkoski is one of many residents who have recently reached out to Ald. Marsha Rummel with concerns and questions about the impact of passenger rail service on neighborhoods near potential train station sites. That prompted Rummel to organize a public meeting Tuesday night for Madison residents — especially those living near tracks where passenger rail service would operate — to air their concerns and ask questions of project staff.
“I know it’s spring when I start getting emails about train horns,” Rummel tells Isthmus, as residents start leaving their windows open more often.
Hundreds of residents, including Poklinkoski, joined the meeting via Zoom, with so many questions asked that the meeting ended before project staff could address them all.
Rummel co-hosted the meeting with Alds. Amani Latimer Burris, Mike Verveer and Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford — all of whom represent east-side or downtown districts that include potential station sites. Several other alders also attended the meeting, including Sabrina Madison, Bill Tishler and Derek Field.
Rummel says that no matter where the station is ultimately built, many neighborhoods will likely be impacted. The purpose of Tuesday’s meeting, she says, was “to collect all the worries and have them spoken out loud so you can address them.”
Eight locations in Madison are being studied as potential rail station sites. Downtown and isthmus locations include Monona Terrace, where a high speed rail station was planned more than a decade ago; Blair Street, where Madison had passenger rail service many decades ago; Livingston Street; and Baldwin Street.
Two potential sites near the future Madison Public Market are also being evaluated, one at First Street and the other at Johnson Street. Two more locations farther north are also in the running, at Commercial Avenue, near the former Oscar Mayer plant, and at Aberg Avenue, near the former North Transfer Point.
When Madison was on the cusp of getting high speed rail, planning efforts included fencing along the tracks and street closings in isthmus neighborhoods. Several residents asked whether there were similar plans for passenger rail.
Transportation planner Liz Callin said neither fencing nor street closures should be widespread in plans this time around, with slower passenger rail trains. Walls or fencing to control access and reduce noise are “more like what you would see in a high speed rail corridor,” said Callin. “That’s really not what we’re looking at for this.”
Residents also asked how rail passenger rail service would impact traffic — how much time will people be sitting at crossings waiting for trains to pass?
“We don’t expect it to be more than a minute or two at max” for trains to get across intersections, answered Callin. City staff noted that passenger trains are much shorter than freight trains that currently operate on the same tracks, occasionally tying up traffic in the city.
Other people asked about environmental impacts, parking, expected schedules and pricing. City transportation director Tom Lynch said that passenger rail, which Madison has not had since 1971, has drawn consistent interest in the city, noting the more than 300 residents on the call.
“The last 18 months, we have the most interest in our public meetings when it has to do with passenger rail,” said city transportation director Tom Lynch. “Higher than any of our other meetings.”
The city is expected to narrow the list of potential station sites by early summer, part of a long timeline that would not see the start of construction until 2028 or later.
Rummel was initially in favor of the station at Blair Street, but worries about whether the small shops currently there would be displaced as part of an expensive redevelopment project. Now, she says, “I’d be happy if it were on Johnson Street.”
