Madison will once again consider building an Amtrak route that would connect Madison to Milwaukee and Minneapolis, but the project remains under the same politicized debates that halted construction progress 15 years ago, according to the Cap Times.
A 2023 federal grant allocated $500,000 to studying the feasibility of this route as part of Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill. It would be years before the station would open, as plans currently stretch into 2032. The scope of the project was established through federal funding, but future aspects of the project will require local funding as well, according to the Cap Times.
High-speed rail and general passenger rail have a long history in Wisconsin. Beginning in 1999, Republican Governor Tommy Thompson and then Democratic Governor Jim Doyle worked to create a plan for passenger rail in Wisconsin through Thompson’s “Midwest Rail Initiative.” In 2009, during the Obama administration, Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood chose Wisconsin to receive federal funding for developing rail because a plan was already developed, according to Wisconsin Public Radio…