(rshsdepot) Amtrak station at Mitchell (Airport in Milwaukee, WI) advances

["James Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

-From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel...

Amtrak station at Mitchell advances
Design to start; Chicago link could bring travelers
By LARRY SANDLER
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: June 11, 2001
State officials will spend $100,000 to start designing an Amtrak station at
Mitchell International Airport, to open by the end of 2003, Gov. Scott
McCallum announced Monday.

If plans proceed and more money can be found to build the depot, passengers
one day could buy a single ticket from Chicago to Los Angeles, board a train
in downtown Chicago, ride to Mitchell and transfer to a California-bound
flight, much the same as they now transfer between airliners, state railroad
planner Randy Wade said.

Airlines and Amtrak have voiced interest in issuing joint tickets, said
David Greene, aviation chief for the state Department of Transportation.
Buses could connect the airport terminal to the train station site, on
airport property west of S. 6th St.

Seamless connections between airlines, railroads, public transit systems,
highways and bicycle paths represent "the future of Wisconsin's top-notch
transportation system," McCallum said in a written statement.

"This is a good example of the modes (of transportation) working together,"
Wade said. "We'll both get more passengers out of it. We'll both get more
efficient."

It's not clear yet how much it would cost to build the station on the
Canadian Pacific Railway tracks west of the airport, Wade said. Unofficial
estimates have put the cost around $1 million.

In 20 years of discussion about an airport train station, this is the first
time anyone has put any money behind the concept, Airport Director C. Barry
Bateman said.

"I think there's some potential to it," Bateman said.

The DOT will call a public hearing on the idea within the next few weeks,
Wade said.

Building a train station at Mitchell is part of the Midwest Regional Rail
Initiative, a $4.1 billion plan to create a network of fast, frequent trains
across a nine-state region, starting with 110 mph service between Milwaukee
and Madison in 2003. High-speed service from Milwaukee to Chicago and the
Twin Cities also is part of that plan.

But the airport station would work even with Amtrak's current schedule of
six round trips daily at 79 mph, said Wade, the passenger rail
implementation manager for the Midwestern initiative.

Mitchell has aggressively marketed itself as "Chicago's third airport," even
threatening legal action against Illinois state officials who have been
using that phrase to describe a proposed new airport in Peotone, Ill., south
of Chicago. About 10% of Mitchell's 6 million passengers a year come from
northern Illinois.

At a high-speed rail conference in Milwaukee last month, Bateman said
high-speed trains to airports could replace commuter airline flights in some
markets.

However, the potential might be even greater for an airport train station to
bring in passengers from other parts of Wisconsin, who wouldn't have the
same "brand loyalty" to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Midway
Airport as Illinois passengers, Bateman said.

Amtrak's Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line now stops in Sturtevant, while
its Empire Builder line stops in La Crosse, Tomah, Wisconsin Dells, Portage
and Columbus on its way between Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities.

A Milwaukee-to-Madison line would add stops in Brookfield, Oconomowoc and
Watertown, and would function as an extension of the Chicago-to-Milwaukee
service. By 2009, that line would offer 110 mph service from Chicago to
Minneapolis-St. Paul, replacing the Empire Builder.

Increasing the frequency of train service, as the Midwest initiative calls
for, also would improve connections between airliners and trains, Wade said.
The plan recommends boosting service to 16 round trips daily between Chicago
and Milwaukee, with some continuing to Madison and the Twin Cities and
others heading to Green Bay at 79 mph.

However, the future of the Midwest initiative, and other high-speed rail
plans across the country, depends on whether Congress approves borrowing $12
billion to finance fast trains nationwide.

The borrowing measure is co-sponsored by a majority of the Senate and is
expected to be introduced soon in the House. Its chances may have improved
recently when the Democratic takeover of the Senate dislodged its most
powerful opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), as Commerce Committee
chairman.

For the airport station, the state is shifting money from the 2000-'01
Bureau of Aeronautics budget, Greene said.



Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 12, 2001.

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