High-speed rail from Madison to Milwaukee? 'It's ba-aack.' (Maybe)

While Racine, Kenosha and Milwaukee struggle with a way to fund the proposed KRM rail link between Chicago and Milwaukee, another passenger rail effort may rise Phoenix-like from decade-old ashes:

Milwaukee to Madison.

The hopes were spurred by an AP story in the Green Bay Press Gazette on Saturday, which began:

"Experts convened by a federal transportation policy commission are recommending a $357.2 billion investment - or $8.1 billion a year - to significantly expand intercity passenger rail service by 2050.

"The recommendations were released Thursday by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission's passenger rail working group."

The story went on to quote Frank Busalacchi, Wisconsin's secretary of transportation and the commissioner who convened the working group, saying the ideas, including Milwaukee to Madison rail, have been adopted by the commission and are expected be part of its final report to Congress. But a spokesman for Transportation Secretary Mary Peters (who apparently didn't get the memo) said the commission has not officially endorsed the plan.

"The majority of the public are going to continue to use the automobile," Busalacchi told The Associated Press. "But if we make it reliable, clean and convenient, people will take the train."

The report calls for federal matching funds to help states establish rail corridors. The first phase, by 2015, calls for the addition of new service that's already in the pipeline ... including parts of a high-speed rail corridor in California and a rail link from Milwaukee to Madison. The estimated cost of the first phase is $66.3 billion, the story said.

A poster to the Madison listserv SASYNA-Discussion, Dan Melton, chairman of the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association, wrote:

"WISDOT Sec. Busalacchi is apparently pushing for it in D.C. You may recall, when Sue Bauman was mayor, we had excruciating arguments, back and forth, about whether a high-speed train from Milwaukee (north of the Interstate) (through Oconomowoc, Watertown, Sun Prairie) should go downtown to the Kohl Center, or to the Airport -- before heading back to Milwaukee. We even had detailed discussions with Mayor Bauman's staff over what kind of fencing would go along our RR right-of-way (assuming it was headed Downtown, through our neighborhood). Then, suddenly, ... nothing. Not a word about high-speed rail. Now, ...the idea's ba-aack. (Sort of) Stay tuned."

(Sue Bauman, Madison's first woman mayor, was elected in 1997, by a 55-vote majority.)