The Milwaukee Streetcar, The Hop, which we’ve written about from historic and modern perspectives, is by early accounts a roaring success. The power lines have barely warmed up and the naysayers have barely crawled back into their troll holes, but Rail Fever has already struck our fellow Milwaukeeans hard.
But let’s not get too carried away: with all of the recent articles and news stories about other rail projects in Wisconsin, it’s like Milwaukee got their first hit of rail and is chasing that next high. Instead, let’s review the existing choices, missed chances, click-bait pieces, and real opportunities.
Existing Choices
Though it certainly wouldn’t be my choice, many Milwaukeeans live in Brew City bliss while working in the Windy City. Rather than taking I-94 down, the Hiawatha Line on Amtrak takes 89 minutes and comes 7 times a day. This passenger rail won’t take you many places in the city, but it does stop downtown, at the airport, and in Sturtevant (near Racine), before heading south of the border.
Kenosha also is the north terminus for the Union Pacific North Metra line, with tons of connections down through the Chicagoland area. However, neither of these is a usable transportation method for getting around Milwaukee-proper.
Missed Chances
There’s plenty of folks still salty about the “High Speed” rail project from the early 2000s that Governor Doyle spearheaded and Governor Walker killed. Reality check: both sides were wrong. True high speed rail would be great, but Doyle’s plan (and back-room deals) would not have produced higher speeds than what I-94 already allows. Regardless, the Feds could give Wisconsin 100% of the funds to build a high speed rail and state Republicans would still oppose it as a “boondoggle”, the worst of all made up words.
And though most of us Millennials won’t remember, the late 1990s saw (Republican – gasp!) Governor Tommy Thompson on-board for a cross-county light rail system in Milwaukee and Waukesha. That, naturally, was killed in its infancy by suburban fear mongering and right-wing talk radio.
Click-Bait Pieces
Last week the Journal Sentinel wrote an extremely worthwhile article about two companies that have been quietly and slowly trying to make headway on converting freight lines to commuter rail in the Milwaukee area, using only private funds ($1.4 billion). The “E-Way” even has a neat little map traversing the county. The piece was well-written, but was more of a “oh wow, isn’t that interesting?” piece than a declaration of impending action.
Within hours every other news outlet in Milwaukee took JS’s article, threw a click-bait headline on it, and made it a misleading day. The companies are real, but the “plan” is unrealistic in its current form.
- Public infrastructure projects of this magnitude can no longer happen without some sort of public funds.
- Wisconsin’s railroad tracks are privately owned (which is its own problem, caused by our misguided forefathers). It wouldn’t make economic sense to pay to upgrade private lines then pay rent to use them.
Sure, let’s keep an eye on what these guys are up to, but let’s not expect this commuter line to open anytime soon. As soon as they crowd-source $1.4 billion, I’ll write a click-bait article about them myself.
Real Opportunities
All that said, there are a couple legitimate plans in the works, with real potential for expanded commuter rail services in Milwaukee beyond the streetcar, thanks to their ties to defined and in-motion business needs.
First, Foxconn could sure use some help to move 13,000 folks to their upcoming rural campus. One Milwaukee alderman thinks a dedicated commuter line could help with that. Get that first line moving workers from across the metro area, and expansion is inevitable.
But Foxconn isn’t the only manufacturer that’ll need to move hoards of workers efficiently: the recently-announced new headquarters and factory for Komatsu (née Joy Global, and Harnischfeger before that) in Harbor View introduced an interesting wrinkle in their plan. Rather than selling the entirety of their land to Komatsu, WE Energies will sell a portion to the City for a future commuter rail station. This could be the northern end of the long-discussed KRM line connecting the hubs of Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee.
Regardless, we here at The Squeaky Curd are huge proponents of rail, or tire, or wing transportation. Give us as many affordable and efficient options as possible.
Or just give us this fabled Milwaukee subway plan. (Hint: there’s an underground lake in the way.)