All hail commuter rail

Imagine a scene, maybe five or 10 years from now. A state worker hops on a train in downtown Middleton and 15 minutes later is at Hamilton Street near her state office building. Or a visiting conventioneer leaves Monona Terrace on a train from Blair Street and is at the airport within ten minutes. And throughout Dane County, planned train routes would stop as far as DeForest, Sun Prairie, Mazomanie or Stoughton.

Rail backers vow these things will happen.

"For me, it's not a question or whether we'll have commuter rail, it's when," declares Supv. Scott McDonell, chair of the county's Commuter Rail Feasibility Committee. "How else are we going to be able to move traffic through the isthmus? As congestion increases, rail starts to look better and better. Things are starting to gel."

A recent commuter rail open house drew around 150 citizens, shocking organizers. Maps were unveiled detailing routes and potential stops, which are being used to come up with ridership and cost estimates. And a study slated for completion in late May should answer a key question: Is commuter rail feasible for Dane County?

If the answer is yes, a lot of planning would still need to be done before any trains are purchased, stations built or tracks upgraded. But some dilemmas have already been resolved.

One great divide among the county's pro-rail forces seems to have been bridged by technology. Just a few years ago, more conservative rail advocates touted commuter rail, while environmentalists promoted light rail. Now there's a hybrid train. It saves money by using existing tracks and runs on diesel, as did commuter rail, and yet is light enough to make more frequent, speedy stops--an advantage of light rail. These self-propelled vehicles, like the Regio Sprinter or the Bombardier, are in use in smaller European cities, and will be the basis for the feasibility analysis.

"With new technology, you can't really even talk about commuter and light rail--that's no longer valid," says Rob Kennedy, policy analyst for the New Transportation Alliance. "And not needing the overhead lines for light rail certainly brings down the price tag."

But questions remain. At the Jan. 15 open house, the study's consultant, Jack Tone of Chicago-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, was bombarded with queries from the audience.

One couple who lives near a rail track worries about noise. Tone responded that with trains running as often as every 10 or 20 minutes during rush hour, there would need to be secure safety gates that people couldn't drive around. That would eliminate the need for regular whistle blowing, even for freight trains, which would share tracks but be restricted to nighttime operations.

Stations and their environs would have to be carefully planned, stresses McDonell: "People will need to be able to do errands they might have used a car for such as picking up milk and dry-cleaning or dropping the kids off at day care. It's got to be convenient. People's sense of civic duty alone won't get them on the train."

The feasibility study will include potential designs for six stops (Stoughton, Burke, Windsor near the proposed ABS project, Shorewood Hills, Paterson Street and the Expo Center) done by Peter Calthorpe and Associates. The land-use analysis is crucial because if growth isn't planned, rail could promote sprawl by making it too easy to go between Madison and outlying areas. But not doing rail could also foster sprawl and kill the inner city.

"The real risk is if you don't provide a positive way to keep traffic moving, you risk the growth jumping outside the city," says McDonell. "But alternatives such as a dedicated bus lane will be seriously looked at as a real option in the study."

Dane County Exec Kathleen Falk is enthusiastic about commuter rail given the new technology and large turnout at the recent forum. "She's determined to keep things moving along," says aide Topf Wells. "She's genuinely excited by the options with the new technology and is keeping an open mind."

Mayor Sue Bauman, however, remains skeptical about rail, light or commuter. She's not certain Dane County has a population large enough to warrant it and says she wants to know how it would impact the Madison Metro bus system.

"We'll see what the study comes up with, but I'm going to continue to ask questions," says Bauman. "It's great if we can afford to do it, I'm just not sure that we have the population and mindset to support it."

Paul Larrousse, Madison Metro general manager, stresses that rail won't replace the bus system, although Metro schedules would certainly have to be realigned. In fact, buses would be key in getting people to the trains. But Larrousse stresses that too many transfers are the biggest disincentive to using public transit: "We have to make sure we bring the transit system close to the passengers and that we don't risk making travel times unattractive."

Kennedy, who represents Madison on the rail committee, stresses that rail has an advantage over buses: It offers a set route that is easy to follow. And it could create a new clientele for public transit.

"There are certain people you just can't get to ride the bus," says Kennedy. "It's stupid, but there it is."

He has studies that show Madison has higher transit ridership numbers than many cities two or three times it's size, such as Toledo, Indianapolis or Nashville. "The reason is simple, we squish everybody through this isthmus and we have major employment centers here," says Kennedy. "Prior studies have proven it to be feasible for the city, what we're really looking at now is the suburban commuters."

At the public forum, the topic raised most often by skeptics was what kind of impact rail could have on taxes. It won't come cheap, but neither do roads. An analysis of commuter rail, done as part of an article in the February Milwaukee Magazine, estimated that commuter rail for a stretch in Milwaukee would cost around $6.5 million per mile, compared with $30 million a mile for light rail or $35 million a mile for Milwaukee's most recent highway.

"Part of our assignment is to come up with some realistic cost estimates," says Tone. "We aren't looking for a gold-plated solution here. We're looking for an economical solution."