There is something about a train that dazzles and delights local governments across the country. Madison is no exception, having recently approved the intergovernmental Transport 2020 committee report. The approval means environmental and engineering studies costing millions can now investigate, amongst other things, a light-rail system from Middleton to East Towne.
The small town’s obsession with trains is an old issue for Simpson’s aficionados. In “Marge vs. the Monorail,” Springfield finds itself with a few million lying around and has no idea on how to spend it. That is until Lyle Lanley (voiced by the late, great Phil Hartman) does a song and dance to pitch his monorail proposal at the town hall meeting. Citing monorail successes in Ogdenville, North Haverbrook, and Brockway, Springfield’s leaders leap at the chance to one up Shelbyville with a multi-million dollar commuter train.
Unlike Springfield, our city faces budget deficits, not surpluses. Still, mayoral candidates Sue Bauman and Paul Soglin have jumped on the train in support of the train. Madison’s elected leaders and community activists have come together, united with blind faith in light rail’s ability to attract riders and solve downtown congestion problems. “If we build it,” the candidates say, “they will come.”
I must admit I was surprised when Shoeless Joe Jackson showed up to play ball after Kevin Costner ruined three acres of his Iowa cornfield. But that was Hollywood, and considering Costner is now washed up, there is no reason to believe if we build light rail that anyone will come. Not even Shoeless.
Whimsical scenes of shiny trains passing through the Isthmus (as opposed to grotesque and evil SUV’s) certainly make a liberal city like Madison feel good about itself. But are these good vibrations worth the hundreds of millions it will take in capital investment or the tens of millions they will require to operate?
University students already pay for their bus passes, regardless of whether they use the passes or not. Bus rides around campus are already “free,” so any light rail along University Avenue is at best a redundancy. If our government took the hundreds of millions being planned for trains and invested it in a regional bus expansion, students would be in a position to benefit. Those who stand to gain from trains are the few who live along the train’s corridor on the far East and West sides.
The city’s unbridled train enthusiasm is not universal. Mayoral hopeful and vocal contrarian Will Sandstrom has been a vocal opponent of Madison’s light rail plan. He correctly points out that the startup funds and continuing subsidies needed for trains will result in an even higher tax burden for Madison home owners and higher rents for downtown residents and students. Unfortunately, his racist remarks of recent weeks indicate his stated economic concerns are simply a cover for the fear that Madison will admit “billions of Chinese” immigrants to help lay the rail.
Regardless of who might build the tracks, the ridership question remains. Transport 2020 assumes increased traffic congestion downtown will continue to create problems for the health of the Isthmus. Yet recent history doesn’t support this assumption.
The lack of parking at the university and downtown has curbed congestion problems. No one drives where they can’t park. Major businesses have already moved out of the Isthmus to outlying areas where parking is plentiful. As they jumped on the moving trucks, not one of them said, “We would have stayed downtown if only there were a choo-choo train.”
As business parks sprout up further from the city’s center, roads like the beltline have seen increased traffic, but trains running downtown won’t help the situation. And let’s not get carried away when we speak of traffic problems on the beltline. It is not like this is Los Angeles or Chicago where gridlock is truly debilitating. At worst, Madison traffic is an occasional inconvenience, perhaps turning a 15-minute trip to West Towne into a 20-minute one.
I am not a foolish ostrich with my head in the sand, refusing to acknowledge a looming transportation crisis. I do expect our civic leaders to acknowledge that sprawl is a Dane County reality, thanks to city policies hostile to downtown developers and employers. Any effective transportation plan must address this reality.
But alas, trains are shiny and riding them is admittedly fun. Don’t forget to mention, a train does a lot to stroke the ego of the community. Big cities have trains, and if Madison wants to play with the big boys, we better get a train too. After all, if North Haverbrook can maintain a monorail, I think Madison can handle a little light rail.
So all aboard! Last stop is the Center for Critical Thinking and Logical Planning, well beyond the Madison city limits.
A.J. Hughes ([email protected]) is a software developer and UW graduate.
