A day in the sun for commuter rail here

The many people who feel that commuter rail can help Madison solve its long-term downtown traffic problems are getting ready to put on a little show next month that will tie in to Badger football.

They plan to run a train from Middleton to the engineering campus behind Camp Randall and from McFarland to the engineering campus on Saturday, Sept. 21, the day of the Stanford-UW football game. In case that date doesn’t work out, the fallback is the Northwestern game on Oct. 19.

The train, which will make three trips from Middleton and three from McFarland, will be free, thanks to a number of local businesses that have been recruited to underwrite the trips by retired Madison banker Roth Schleck, an unabashed fan of commuter rail himself.

Commuter rail advocates, who have been studying possible service and routes for the past year, believe that UW athletic events will be a strong draw because fans will be able to park for free on the outskirts and be within easy walking distance of Camp Randall for football or the new Kohl Center for basketball.

The only requirement on Sept. 21 to jump on the train is to be in possession of a football ticket for that day’s game, which, because of TV, will begin at 11:30 a.m.

Tentative plans, which were slipped to me last weekend by local train enthusiast and former Chicago Northwestern trainmaster Augie Troia, include 6:30, 8:10, and 9:40 a.m. departures from Deming Way in Middleton, with one stop at the downtown Middleton depot and then on to the engineering mall.

The train will continue on from each of those trips to McFarland, where it will board passengers for the trip to Camp Randall at 7:25, 8:55, and 10:35 a.m. The train will depart Camp Randall after the game at 3:05 p.m. for Middleton and 4:05 for McFarland.

Up to five passenger cars from the Union Pacific’s Chicago Metra service will be used for the demonstration and, according to Troia, will be around on Sunday for ore trips, including trips all the way tout to Mazomanie.

The commuter rail study has so far been focusing on establishing service from around the East Towne area, down through the isthmus and out to Middleton. There has also been strong talk about running trains to Mazomanie to bring workers to their jobs in Madison.

The proposed experiment was the talk of the quarterly meeting of the Chicago Northwestern Veterans Association at the Heritage house last Sunday. The retirees get together regularly to relive their working days on the railroad and to push rail as a transportation alternative to the ribbons of concrete we keep constructing in this country.

Some argue that rail proponents -- particularly passenger rail advocates -- are dreamers.

The real dreamers, however, are those who feel we can continue to build more and wider roads for more and longer trucks and cars and still have a livable world.