Hey I was just wondering if anyone has heard if. High speed amtrak train service was still coming to wisconsin. I was wondering this because I had heard that they were going to bring high speed rail service to wisconsin you know have trains run from. Milwaukee to Madison at like 110MPH but i kinda lost track of this subject
if anyone has anything on this please send it my way.[:D]
Based on Amtrak’s current financial status, I wouldn’t hold my breath on any new services, let alone very expensive high speed projects.
The concept of the service is still being promoted by The Midwest High Speed Rail Association, but absent serious federal involvement nothing has happened.
You can get more information and any breaking news at http://www.midwesthsr.org/index.htm
Jay
Iowa is a part of that high-speed deal. They were purposing a new route through Iowa but that never happened. Probably not something to wait around for.
If anything were to happen along those lines (no pun intended), Chicago-Detroit and Chicago-St. Louis would probably get first priority.
I know that one of my fellow church members has been working on a project for a company that supplies support equipment for running the trains at higher speeds. He’s been over to central Illinois many times riding the rails on an experimental section of track where they’re running over 100 MPH. I will have to ask him the status of the project next time I see him.
I always heard CHI-IND-CIN was high on the Midwest list because three cities, not just two, would be involved. Of course, it is just a list and I’m not going down to the platform today to wait on the first train.
If the Midwest High Speed Rail could get any money, Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison/Green Bay could be a part of a very nice K shaped system. Part of the deal is to be able to run trains direct thru O’Hare & Mitchell airports. I don’t know of any projects on the Chi-Mil coorridor, like efforts in Illinois & michigan.
I think this demonstrates the inability of state Dot’s to do the job Federal money will be required. The Amtrak mess keeps getting dragged out for decades now, with no real progress. In the early days of Amtrak, they ran a few trains from St Louis on to Milwaukee with a stop in Chicago. If Amtrak could put together & keep a good schedule, perhaps equipment used on other routes could have a 2 hour quick trip & keep trains moving. Gas 'em & go!
To be more specific on my post above, other than suggesting routes, I don’t believe anything has been done to move forward on the Wisconsin high speed service.
I don’t know exactly where the project stand now, but Illinois has gotten a considerable amount of work done on getting the Chicago to Springfield route ready for running speeds of up to 103 MPH. At this point, I don’t think there is any consideration of building for much greater speeds on any of the Midwest Regionals. Any faster than that and the cost for equipment and infrastructure goes right through the roof.
As those interested in passenger service know, DOT Secretary Mineta continues to state that Amtrak is a broken system and needs to be fixed. However, other than complaining about the problem, I don’t think DOT has put forth anything more than some off the wall ideas on how the fix should be accomplished. Amtrak has presented Congress with an outline proposing several changes in their setup. With respect to regional operations, Amtrak proposed 80/20 federal/state funding for building the systems, with the states then picking up the operating deficits. It was also suggested that the states be allowed select an entity other than Amtrak to run those trains, presumably through a competitive process.
Jay