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In the 1920s, more than 40 passenger trains a day passed through La Crosse. Even in the 1960s, when American passenger rail service was dying, there were eight.
Today, there are two.
But the future of rail travel could look something like the past if the state Department of Transportation succeeds in building a high-speed corridor from Chicago to the Twin Cities.
The DOT proposal would add 12 trains a day, zipping passengers between the Twin Cities and Chicago in less than six hours.
The project, which would begin with service to Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison, is dependent on federal funding — and a lot of it. The DOT estimated in 2002 it would cost $1.86 billion to get the Chicago-to-Twin Cities high-speed corridor running. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $2.25 billion today.
But the payoff could be substantial, and not just for those riding the train, said Randy Wade, passenger rail manager for the DOT.
The DOT estimates the Chicago-Twin Cities high-speed train would carry 1.8 million passengers a year. With service to Green Bay, ridership would jump to 3.7 million.
Trains are more energy efficient than airplanes or automobiles, using less fuel and emitting fewer greenhouse gases per passenger.
Especially in 300- to 500-mile corridors, trains could reduce both highway and airline congestion, said David Johnson, assistant director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, a rail advocacy group.
It also would provide jobs — more than 9,500 according to the DOT — and could bring $16 million to $23 million in new development to La Crosse.
“When you provide mobility, you’re helping the economy grow,” Wade said.
If federal funding is approved, it would take two to three years to get service to Madison, Wade said. The Twin Cities leg would begin service a year or two after that.
A Chicago-Twin Cities route would be state-funded and subject to the same reliability demands the DOT puts on the Hiawatha commuter train between Milwaukee and Chicago.
Last year, 87 percent of the runs on that line were on time, compared with 65 percent for the long-distance Empire Builder.
The Hiawatha line carries about 617,000 commuters a year, far beyond DOT expectations, Wade said.
Bob Fisher, of the Wisconsin Association of Rail Passengers advocacy group lobbying for the high-speed service, said adding more trains would increase ridership exponentially.
“It then becomes a more logical, useable mode of transportation,” he said. “You can get up to the cities and back in a day.”
Chris Hubbuch can be reached at chris.hubbuch@lee.net or (608) 791-8217.
