Downtown residents got a chance to ask questions and voice their opinions about the future implementation of a high-speed rail station near campus at a neighborhood meeting Monday.
Attendees at the meeting, held at Meriter Commons, 345 W. Main St., discussed the three sites for the train station currently being considered'a Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center site, a Kohl Center site and a Patterson Street area site.
'Each one of these [has] their unique strengths and weaknesses,' City Planner David Trowbridge said.
Archie Nicolette, also a city planner, said the Monona Terrace would be 'a very attractive place to get off the train,' given its proximity to the state Capitol. However, according to Nicolette, there would be a shortage of parking.
LeAnna Wall, project manager for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, added that 'the deeper you go in the city it becomes incredibly expensive.'
While the Kohl Center site would not be as close to downtown as the Monona Terrace site, parking wouldn't be as much of a problem, Nicolette said.
Tom Fleming, a volunteer for the Dane Alliance for Rail Transit, said this location would have the advantage of being close to the university and would provide transportation to Kohl Center events. However, there would be more street crossings which the rail would have to intersect, he said.
The third possible site would be in the Patterson Street Area, on the near east side. This site would cause the least intrusion into the city, but is the farthest from downtown of the proposed sites.
According to Trowbridge, by 2003 there may be six daily round trips from Chicago to Madison via Milwaukee. By 2005, the same six daily round trips would extend from Madison to St. Paul, and an additional four trains would run from Chicago to Madison only.
A round-trip ticket from Madison to Chicago would cost $80, to Milwaukee $38 and to St. Paul between $125 and $150.
Wall said two issues will determine when the Madison to Milwaukee ride will be operational. First, the Federal Railroad Association must determine that enough analysis has been done concerning the environmental impact of the train stations. Second, the federal government must agree to fund construction of the high-speed rail. Wall said the federal government may be more willing to do so given the recent airplane hijackings.
'Hijacking of airplanes [has] created an increased interest in alternative forms of transportation,' Wall said.
