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
Hope it's okay if I Hop (lmao) onto this post to expand upon one of my favorite cities in the country. MKE, like many US cities, used to have a pretty extensive streetcar network that was torn up from lobbyist pressure, and they really screwed themselves for it. A lot of streetcar lines were replaced with bus routes, which are still some of the most used to this day- if you compare this poster I created of then/now streetcar lines to this map of current bus lines (blue is the most used, red is likely to be cut in 2025 due to MCTS having financial problems) you can see a TON of overlaps. Some bus lines even carry the same route numbers and colors of their predecessors.
The Hop (existing streetcar line) is unfortunately pretty unusable because it was built off the back of corporate interest. It connects the Amtrak station to downtown, which isn't entirely a BAD thing on its own. However, even being totally free, ridership is low because it doesn't GO anywhere where residents of the city want to go, and is slower than basically every other option because it gets EXTREMELY stuck in traffic. I went to school within range of the Hop and knew extremely few people who EVER used it. And those who did would often end up late to class because of it. All to say it's in a real sorry state right now, and that bums me out. They are planning a few extensions despite city financial troubles, and I hope that improves things
In brighter transit though, Milwaukee opened its first BRT line this year! It's not perfect, I wish the bus only lanes extended the whole length, and I haven't had the chance to try it for myself just yet, but I'm glad it got built at all.
I guess the point of this is that there are people in Milwaukee who care and want to make things better, and in my opinion I think there'e a lot of potential! So people from the area gotta get excited about transit, rope in their friends and loved ones, and make sure to pressure your politicians to secure funding for transit!!
Bonus rambling: Steps I would love to see personally, as a limitedly informed layperson. 1) I think the streetcar should focus on a UWM connection, as that is a HUGE population of non driving students, and would give access to a LOT of residential area. 2) AFTER that, getting the Hop to go all the way to the Summerfest grounds is a NO BRAINER to me. The Fiserv Forum is another place it would make a lot of sense to expand to. 3) This is only tangentially related but Brady Street should be pedestrianized!!! It would be an excellent way to encourage use of transit, and it would make an already cool spot into one of the best places in the city!
Thank you for individual city suggestions, I really did want this to be a cumulative summary of proposals, ideas, and current projects in the region, I was hoping these kinds of posts would be made actually
