All aboard

Railway projects ignite development opportunities

But can Wisconsin make it to the station on time?

By Jennifer Pfaff

The decision to throw his support behind new commuter rail options in Wisconsin was a simple matter for Mark Ernst.

Coming from the East Coast, the partner at Milwaukee-based Engberg Anderson Design Partnership Inc. saw the benefits of regional connectivity firsthand.

But as he watches local developments sprawl, he said, he is frustrated by what he calls the shortsightedness of Wisconsin — the failure to plan regional transportation systems that move workers, customers and products along major population corridors using a variety of transportation modes.

“The big picture is an economic one,”

Ernst said. “We are a region. I don’t think Milwaukee thinks of itself that way, but we are close to Chicago.”

Ernst has publicly signaled his support for a proposed commuter line connecting Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.

State railway planners expect a $15 million renovation of the downtown Milwaukee Amtrak station to spur development in the surrounding area. Rendering courtesy of WisDOT and Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc.

“I can really imagine it changing the way Kenosha, Racine develop,” he said. “Racine is so far from the freeway.”

He pointed to the fast-growing freeway corridors, to the businesses competing for land near easy transportation links to customers, suppliers and labor.

“Racine is struggling to compete with that,” he said.

With gas prices soaring above $2 a gallon in recent months, passenger rail advocates say the time is right to strengthen this transportation form in Wisconsin. And the work is already getting started.

Amtrak’s existing Hiawatha line, which is a commuter service between Milwaukee and Chicago, is the recipient of multiple state projects to improve stations. Efforts also are under way to bring the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Rail and a high-speed train service linking Milwaukee and Madison to life.

Randy Wade, Wisconsin Department of Transportation passenger rail manager, said he sees rail service having the power to shape future development in the state and in individual communities.

Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Rail Metra Extension

Some cities along the proposed KRM Commuter Rail already are preparing for development booms in the areas surrounding the possible station locations. Image courtesy of Transit Now

And Wisconsin is counting on a $15 million renovation of the downtown Milwaukee Amtrak station to do just that.

“We’d like to use the downtown station as an anchor for development,” Wade said. “We’d like to have it be a gateway to downtown, to Fifth Street. The whole idea is to revitalize that neighborhood.”

Now in the shadow of the Marquette Interchange, the area just south of Marquette University and Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Avenue bears witness to what many forecast will be the transportation wave of the future. The long dominant freeway will one day share its prominence with various forms of railways, they say.

Riding along those steel rails is the potential for new residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if apartments go up on St. Paul Avenue when this is done,” Wade said of the downtown station project.

The gutting and renovation of the three-story downtown station will hook the Hiawatha Amtrak service to other transportation options, including Greyhound bus service. The KRM pro-posal suggests that line should end at the downtown station.

Kenosha already has a rail service linking it to Chicago, so, ultimately, the new line would offer seamless travel from Milwaukee to Chicago. With several stops along the way, the KRM journey would take significantly longer to make that trek than Hiawatha, making KRM more likely to draw users traveling between stops rather than the full route.

The demand for passenger rail is on the rise, said Marc Magliari, media relations manager for Amtrak. Ridership on the Hiawatha line broke 500,000 last year, and the past 10 months have all been record-breakers.

Station upgrades in Sturtevant and downtown Milwaukee and a new station at General Mitchell International Airport will make Hiawatha’s service more attractive for users.

“I believe this type of work will become more abundant for the building industry in Wisconsin because of economic factors,” said Dave Riley, vice president of operations at Kenosha-based Riley Construction Co. Inc., the company building the Sturtevant upgrades. “The Europeans have been paying high gas prices for years, and I think that will come here as well.”

The well-developed, passenger rail system in Europe, therefore, will become more attractive to Americans, he said.

While investment in passenger rail is starting with projects benefiting existing service, Wisconsin is laying the groundwork to bring in new lines when funding becomes available.

Several projects are in the works, the KRM Commuter Rail chief among them. Proponents are still working out important details such as who would operate the service and how its costs would be shared, said Ken Yunker, deputy director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, the fiscal agent for the KRM studies.

A Riley Construction crew prepares for the installation of helical piers for the east pedestrian bridge tower at the Sturtevant station on the Hiawatha line. Photo courtesy of Riley Construction Co. Inc.

The overarching concept is to extend commuter rail service, using existing track, through the three cities. Eight Wisconsin stops are envisioned: the existing train stations in Kenosha and downtown Milwaukee and new ones in Somers, Racine, Caledonia, Oak Creek, South Milwaukee and at the Cudahy-St. Francis border.

A consultant will soon be hired to conduct an alternatives analysis, a necessary step if the project is to gain Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts grant money.

“It has the potential for substantial development and redevelopment impacts on the neighborhoods where it stops,” Yunker said.

The city of Cudahy has already refocused its planning efforts to concentrate on building up the neighborhoods where its station would be built, he said.

Along a typical commuter line, retail development booms within a half-mile radius of the station, but the residential and secondary commercial development continues well beyond that mark, Yunker said.

Proponents would like preliminary engineering of the project to begin by the end of 2007, so service can begin in 2009.

Funding is the one issue that could stop the KRM line, Yunker said. While the majority could come from federal dollars, a substantial dollar amount would need to be paid locally.

“It’s difficult to see how local funding for commuter rail could come from those governing bodies,” he said.

The Regional Transportation Authority was created to deal with that very issue and is charged with studying potential funding sources and operators of the line. One idea floated is the introduction of a $2 vehicle rental fee, but that is far from the only option, Yunker said.

And while the KRM line struggles to identify local funding opportunities, other passenger rail projects under consideration are fighting for federal dollars.

Wade said an exciting addition to Wisconsin’s rail offerings would be a high-speed rail, a form of transportation that uses trains traveling up to 110 mph to connect cities.

In fact, the state has already purchased 33 miles between Watertown and Madison for a proposed high-speed railroad corridor that would connect Milwaukee to Madison. Ultimately, that line could be expanded all the way to the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and a second leg could be added connecting Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wade said.

On all routes, stops would be planned at several points along the journey, opening up areas of potential development throughout Wisconsin.

The plans depend on federal funding, however, and most agree the fight for federal dollars will be a long one.

“On one hand, it’s very challenging,” Wade said. “There’s hurricane efforts, the Iraq war. On the other hand, you have $3-a-gallon gas, and people need alternative transportation methods. It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when.”