(The following story by Larry Sandler appeared on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website on August 7, 2009.)
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — After six straight years of growth, ridership is dipping on Amtrak’s Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line – just as the state is investing more than $47 million in new trains for that route.
A state rail official blamed the recession but said the Department of Transportation remains confident the economy and the ridership will rebound by the time the new trains are delivered in 2011.
And when the new trains debut on the Hiawatha line, they will offer wireless Internet service and more comfortable seats than the current cars, said Ron Adams, the department’s rail chief.
On Tuesday, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee authorized borrowing $47.1 million to buy two 14-car train sets from the Spanish manufacturer Talgo, plus $400,000 for liability insurance. The state has an option to buy two more trains if it wins federal funding to extend service with a new 110-mph route from Milwaukee to Madison.
In recent years, Hiawatha ridership nearly doubled, from 397,518 in 2002 to 766,167 last year, with a 24% jump in 2008 alone. That 93% ridership boost wasn’t enough to convince the Legislature to authorize an eighth daily round trip in the 2009-’11 state budget, but it seemed to bolster the administration’s case for buying the two Talgo train sets, which will increase capacity from 350 to 420 passengers on each trip.
This year, however, ridership dipped 3.7%, from 352,033 in the first six months of 2008 to 338,950 in the same half of 2009.
“We feel the economy just like everyone else,” Adams said. “People aren’t traveling.”
In addition, gas prices were higher last year, providing more incentive to ride the train instead of driving, Adams said.
But state officials expect the ridership to improve, along with the economy, before the new trains enter service, he said.
“We see this as a long-term investment,” Adams said.
That explanation didn’t comfort state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), a Joint Finance Committee member who joined three other Republicans in opposing the train purchase on an 11-4 party-line vote.
Darling said Gov. Jim Doyle and his fellow Democrats should have waited for a cost-benefit analysis of the no-bid deal, which was allowed by a 12-year-old law exempting state rail contracts from normal bidding rules.
“My main point was, ‘Why do they have to do this now?’ _” Darling said. “This is not the time to make this kind of commitment, when we are projecting huge holes in Medicaid” and other programs. “We never even had a chance to discuss the ridership.”
To help attract riders, the Talgo trains will offer amenities the Hiawatha doesn’t have now, Adams said. Seating will be “first-class for everyone,” with wider, more comfortable seats and more leg room, he said.
State officials also want to provide Wi-Fi service on the new trains, Adams said. Other improvements, such as bicycle racks, are still under study, he said. Baggage space will be similar to current trains, and the state doesn’t plan to add cafÈ cars, he said.
Darling remains skeptical.
“People love the Amtrak, they just love the Hiawatha, but I have never heard them demanding that we upgrade the trains so they will ride them,” Darling said.
State officials have said the Talgo trains’ lightweight construction and tilt-train technology – which lets them take sharp curves at high speeds – would be advantages for 110-mph service on the Milwaukee-to-Madison line and for a planned upgrade to high-speed service all the way from Chicago to Minneapolis-St. Paul.
When service starts on the Milwaukee-to-Madison route, projected for 2013, track conditions could temporarily limit the trains’ top speed to 79 mph, the same as the Hiawatha, Adams said. But federal rules require a new safety system, called positive train control, to be in place by 2015, and that would allow trains to reach 110 mph on the new route, he said.
State officials hope to work with Canadian Pacific Railway officials to use the Wisconsin tracks for a test of positive train control, which could allow 110-mph service before 2015, Adams said.
Doyle has asked the federal government for $519 million in stimulus cash for the Milwaukee-to-Madison line, part of a $3.5 billion request for the beginnings of a Midwestern network of fast, frequent trains. A decision could come before the end of the year.