(The following article by Larry Sandler was posted on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website on January 13.)
MILWAUKEE — Starting Tuesday, travelers will be able to catch a train to catch their plane at Mitchell International Airport.
Gov. Jim Doyle and U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) will open a new $6.8 million Amtrak station at the airport, a move aimed at luring more Chicago passengers away from overcrowded O’Hare International Airport, state Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi said Thursday.
But Milwaukee-area passengers also will get a new station that some might prefer to the current downtown Milwaukee and Sturtevant depots, said Ron Adams, rail chief in the state Department of Transportation. And for $6 each way, conventioneers could take a 10-minute trip from the airport to downtown and walk to the Midwest Airlines Center, officials have noted.
Meanwhile, another Milwaukee-area rail plan is moving on a slower track.
Top local officials and Busalacchi agreed Thursday to take a few months to determine how to pay for a $152 million proposal to extend Chicago’s Metra commuter trains from Kenosha to Racine and Milwaukee, said Racine Mayor Gary Becker.
As a result, the final phase of study on the 33-mile line, called preliminary engineering, might not start until late this year, said Becker and Fred Patrie, Kenosha County director of public works. Nonetheless, state and local officials will start environmental studies that could cover part of the work that ordinarily would be done in preliminary engineering, they said.
By contrast, the airport station will use existing passenger rail service, the seven daily round trips of Amtrak’s Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line. All Hiawatha trains will stop at the airport.
Shuttles/parking available
The new 1,600-square-foot Amtrak depot is on the west side of S. 6th St., just south of Mitchell’s Remote Parking Lot B. The airport’s free parking shuttle buses will carry passengers between the station and the terminal.
Passengers who are boarding trains at the station can park for $5 a day in the depot’s 300-space parking lot, Adams said. The parking fees will cover the station’s operating costs.
Like the Sturtevant station, the Mitchell station won’t sell tickets, but passengers who board there can buy tickets from conductors for no extra charge, Adams said.
Passengers will have to go to the airport terminal for rental cars and most other services, but the station will have restrooms and eventually an automated teller machine and vending machines, Adams said. The new station will have both an inside waiting area and a covered platform.
Busalacchi said the combination of a convenient train ride from downtown Chicago and “hassle-free” air service at Mitchell should attract more northern Illinois passengers to the Milwaukee airport. Doyle and airport officials have been pushing Mitchell as an alternative to O’Hare.
As part of that strategy, state officials are seeking a federal grant to study whether luggage could be transferred directly from trains to planes, Busalacchi said. That would allow passengers to check their bags at Chicago’s Union Station, ride a train to Mitchell, board a plane and pick up their bags at their final destination.
Midwest Airlines executives have voiced interest in the idea, but more study is needed to determine whether such a system could meet federal airline baggage security rules, Busalacchi and Adams said.
Mitchell will be the fourth U.S. airport with an Amtrak station, after Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Bob Hope Airport in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, Calif. The other three are farther from their respective airport terminals, Adams said.
If the Metra line is extended, that also would be linked by shuttle bus to the airport, from a station in downtown Cudahy. Other stops would be in downtown Milwaukee, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek, the Town of Caledonia, Racine, the Town of Somers and Kenosha.
With that station lineup, the Metra service would focus on commuters and other passengers on city-to-suburb or suburb-to-suburb trips, while the Hiawatha offers faster service from downtown Milwaukee to downtown Chicago, with stops only at Glenview, Ill., Sturtevant and now Mitchell.
Becker and Busalacchi joined Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds, Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian and Kenosha County Executive Allan Kehl to discuss commuter rail in a closed-door meeting at Racine’s Wingspread Center.
All reaffirmed their support for the line as a way to spur development, Becker said. But all agreed that they need a plan for funding the project before moving into preliminary engineering, he added.
The Metra line would offer seven round trips each weekday and three each Saturday, Sunday and holiday.