The upper midwest could easily become as interconnected as the Northeast, Lets explore what steps are needed to do that.
I am defining the upper midwest as Northern Illinois and Indiana, alongside Wisconsin and Minnesota. So the Major cities we are looking at are Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Duluth, and Chicago
Firstly Given the Blog we are going to look at the key amtrak routes.
Firstly we have one of the most important, Minneapolis- Duluth or the Northern Lights Express, it has already been funded by the Minnesota state legislature and should begin construction in the next few years.
Next up we have the St. Paul to Milwaukee to Chicago line, also known as TCMC. The it is also already funded by Minnesota and Wisconsin and is expected to open fully in 2025 with limited service starting this year according to MNDOT.
Finally we have the 2 less likely lines which need state funding and federal funding from the infrastructure bill. Those are the Madison Line which would be a spur of TCMC and the Fox cities line which would run from Milwaukee to Green Bay
So now that we have the official proposals out of the way, let’s have some fun. Firstly we need another Chicago-Milwaukee connection outside the Hiawatha and Empire Builder, even after the amount of trains is raised to 10 daily. I would propose we reestablish the Northshore line to meet that need
Next up, Madison and Milwaukee need their own metro or lightrail systems to increase inner city movement. At minimum Milwaukee needs to expand their streetcar and Madison needs something beyond busses