PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — It may not be coming for the NFL Draft as many had hoped, but plans to bring Amtrak service back to Northeast Wisconsin are still chugging along.
In December 2023, a half-million-dollar Corridor Identification grant from the Federal Railroad Administration was awarded to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to study new potential Amtrak routes, including one from Milwaukee to Green Bay.
Step one of that process is almost finished.
“The project is moving forward to get the train from Milwaukee up to Green Bay,” says Larry Rueff, an advocate with NEW Rails and a municipal and legislative liaison for the Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers. “What we found out specifically was that by the end of June, the consultants hired by WISDOT are to file an initial report. And from there, then we enter step 2.”
In a meeting with the Wisconsin DOT, Rueff learned that despite a new federal administration and funding cuts, the projects are still a go.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation officials also confirmed that information.
They say step one creates a scope, budget, and schedule for step two.
Step two, an estimated three-year process, will then create a service development plan for rail service from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton and Green Bay.
It will also identify projections for ridership and revenue.
But, step two can’t move forward until the state provides a 10% match of the federal grant.
Governor Tony Evers proposed that funding be included in his biennial budget, and 8 local municipalities, including Green Bay, penned a letter to budget lawmakers encouraging them to pass it.
“It was great that the governor included this level of support in his budget to fund that phase two of the work that’s necessary to actually restore passenger rail here, so hoping that our legislature also sees the wisdom of that support,” says Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.
At a public budget listening session earlier this month, Rueff appealed to lawmakers this way:
“Currently, with the train services we have, you have 40% of legislative districts within 20 miles of a rail service for passengers. If we are approved and expand with these other routes, and that does include the route from Milwaukee to Green Bay, that number goes to 67%,” Rueff says.
Advocates agree that passenger rail leads to new business and growth, new jobs, is better for the environment, and creates transportation options for both work and play.
“In addition to that, it’s just another great transportation option for people in the region, so not even going from Green Bay all the way down to Milwaukee, from Green Bay to Fond du Lac you’re talking about a million plus people, and so to offer just another way for people to get up and down the valley, from work to home I think is a really great advantage as well,” Genrich adds.
Wisconsin DOT officials say step three of the Corridor ID program will include preliminary engineering and environmental documentation, and would be 80% funded by the grant, requiring 20% from the state of Wisconsin.
Step four of the program will include the final design of the railroad improvements needed, while step five is construction. WisDOT did not specify how steps four and five would be funded.
The three other Wisconsin routes being studied include Eau Claire to the Twin Cities, Milwaukee to Madison to Eau Claire, and Chicago via La Crosse to St. Paul.
Service from Milwaukee to Green Bay would be an extension of the existing Hiawatha Service, and is the only route being considered that wouldn’t require all new construction, as some infrastructure remains in place.
Rueff says the route, however, would require some new routing out of Milwaukee, and that several routes are under consideration. He’s hopeful they officials will go through Milwaukee’s 30th Street Corridor.
“It’s great that we’ve got so much emphasis on Green Bay, the Fox River Valley, connections through Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Kaukauna, De Pere, but we also need to be connected to the rail line that’s going to come from Chicago through our two stations in Milwaukee and on north.”
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