Madison Passenger Rail Station Study held a public meeting Tuesday to discuss public corridors and preliminary station sites. Speakers from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Amtrak and infrastructure design firm HNTB spoke at the meeting. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway also spoke at the meeting.
“We are doing everything we can at a city level to help restore passenger rail service to Madison,” Rhodes-Conway said.
While the study is still in the beginning phase, the rail station would help the economy by connecting Madison to other Midwestern cities, allowing for more public transit and being a climate-friendly option for future transportation needs, according to Rhodes-Conway.
This rail station would provide direct service to Chicago, incorporate Madison on a regional transportation system and bring people from across the Midwest to Madison, Director of Network Development at Amtrak Arun Rao said.
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Before the public meeting, the study team for the passenger rail station evaluated potential corridors for a station site, according to the study. A rail corridor is the area that contains the rails, junctions, crossings and other related items, according to Law Insider. These corridors included the Downtown Corridor, First Street Corridor, Oscar Meyer Corridor, Airport Corridor and East Side Corridor.
Three corridor sites — Downtown, First Street and Oscar Meyer — were advanced to site analysis based on the following criteria — rail operation, multimodal connectivity, land use development, ridership potential and equitable access.
After advancing three corridor sites to the analysis phase, Transportation Planner and Project Manager Liz Callin discussed the station site evaluation criteria. Based on the criteria, the study team decided on eight potential station sites. The sites are Monona Terrace, Blair Street, Livingston Street, Baldwin Street, First Street, Johnson Street, Commerical Avenue and Aberg Avenue.
These sites were chosen based on the accessibility and proximity to people, jobs and destinations. Additionally, it was important for the study team to choose potential sites that have access to multimodal connectivity, including transportation by car, foot and bus.
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“We want to make sure that it is accessible for those drop offs and pick ups by car, but we also want to think about those multimodal access points and making it really convenient, comfortable and safe for people walking, biking and taking transit,” Callin said.
Another aspect that members of the study have to consider is ownership of property as some of the sites they are looking at are privately owned. Therefore, it would require either the purchase of the property or an arrangement with the current owner. The sites that would require this arrangement include Blair Street, Livingston Street, Johnson Street, Commercial Avenue and Aberg Avenue, according to the preliminary draft.
The Passenger Rail Station Identification Study published a timeline including current and future plans for the study. Currently, the team is in the process of evaluating specific station sites within the corridors. Once a site is decided, the study will develop a proposed site plan with estimated costs and next steps.
A virtual public meeting will be held Feb. 6 to discuss corridor evaluation sites and preliminary evaluation sites. The team working on the study encourages the public to provide feedback and recommendations by emailing [email protected], according to the City of Madison website.
