Trains? (Milwaukee, Madison, Portage: home, traffic, agent)

[kfierce]

are there commuter trains in madison?

[arimor]

Originally Posted by kfierce

are there commuter trains in madison?

the AM-track? other than that no

but other than that i would not be surprised to see if madison develope some sort of thing before mke kenosha has a trolley one but it goes in a circle or something

[Megan1967]

No, there has been talk, but nothing has come of it. Although I think the 12/18 Belt line (the hwy that runs from the far west side to the far East side - I'm thinking the equivalent of I35 in Austin only horizontal rather than vertical) is murder at rush hour, people from bigger cities say we are all wuss's around here and that we don't know what "real" traffic is. From what I've read on the Austin Forum our traffic is really nothing compared to your area. It's a fairly small city so we can only get into so much trouble.

[katreese]

Madison doesn't have Amtrak - the closest stop is in Columbus, which is 45 minutes away.

[gallon]

Originally Posted by Megan1967

No, there has been talk, but nothing has come of it. Although I think the 12/18 Belt line (the hwy that runs from the far west side to the far East side - I'm thinking the equivalent of I35 in Austin only horizontal rather than vertical) is murder at rush hour, people from bigger cities say we are all wuss's around here and that we don't know what "real" traffic is. From what I've read on the Austin Forum our traffic is really nothing compared to your area. It's a fairly small city so we can only get into so much trouble.

As a native Badger, who has just completed a 24 year career in the Washington DC area, I can certify that Madison traffic is benign. This was my first winter back in Madison, and I have enjoyed winter driving immensely. Back in DC, just the threat of snow sends people frantically scurrying home. Here in Madison, people actually slow down. There is still one thing common to both, when it snows the first ones in the ditch are the suvs,
in both places.

[arimor]

Originally Posted by katreese

Madison doesn't have Amtrak - the closest stop is in Columbus, which is 45 minutes away.

okay, i thought it would be vital to have the AM TRACK in wisconsins most populated cities, columbus huh!

[gallon]

Originally Posted by arimor

okay, i thought it would be vital to have the AM TRACK in wisconsins most populated cities, columbus huh!

You are right of course. The reason it stops in Columbus is because that is where the tracks are. Amtrack uses the old Milwaukee Road mainline between Milwaukee and Minneapolis. I dunno who the operator is now, SOO, CN,
anybody? That line is well maintained from Chicago all the way out to Seattle.

[therrboomer]

Nearest Amtrak stop is Portage, but no agent or checked baggage like Columbus has. They operate on tracks owned by Canadian Pacific (ex Soo Line, ex Milwaukee Road) Chicago to Midway station (Twin Cities).