1. Wisconsin Intercity Passenger Rail
Part of the Midwest Chicago Hub Network
Arun Rao, Passenger Rail Manager Wisconsin Department of Transportation

2. Intercity Passenger Rail in Wisconsin
Existing Services
Amtrak Hiawatha Service
Amtrak Empire Builder
Amtrak Thruway buses
Current department focus for passenger rail: Maintain and improve existing passenger rail service and corridors
So we have of course the Hiawatha Service, state supported corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago which also serves the airport, the Racine, WI area, and Glenview, IL in the northern suburbs of Chicago; The Empire Builder, Amtrak long distance train traversing the state on its way to twin cities, and Seattle/Portaland, both connecting the state to the Chicago hub. And Amtrak thruway coach services that extend the reach of the rail service to other parts of the state. This is something that we are trying to expand through coordination and facilitation among Amtrak and private bus companies, and through our IC bus 5311 program.
10/6/2016

3. Milwaukee-Chicago Hiawatha Service
WisDOT
IDOT
Amtrak
Metra
CP Rail
Seven round-trips daily, 6 on Sunday
86 miles, shortest Amtrak route in US
Operates over CP and Metra
Milwaukee to Chicago/Midwest hub in 89 minutes
Features one of four Amtrak stations within an airport: Milwaukee Airport Rail Station
6th busiest state supported route, 800,000 riders
Weekdays: 42% work commute; 25% business trip; 34% of tickets paid by employers
20% multi-ride, higher on weekdays
70% passengers would drive if train were not available
One of few unreserved state-supported trains
OTP in the mid 90s
6th busiest corridor after Keystone, CA, Empire
10/6/2016

4. Hiawatha Service ridership
Doubled since we went to 7 RT back in 2003
10/6/2016

5. Hiawatha Service: Challenges
Seating capacity issues on peak trains with standees; pressure to add coaches
Pressure for additional stations
Need for additional frequencies
Limited capacity that host railroads are willing to use for ICPR on a busy rail corridor:
60 Metra trains
25 freight trains
16 Amtrak trains
Pressure to add coaches: we have had to do that in September due to a surge in ridership from changing commuting patterns associated with major corporations in SE Wisconsin; very large cost since we are at 6 car consists and when you go to 7th car, under union rules you need another AC. So even an additional coach car full of new passengers is not enough revenue to offset the cost of the additional coach.
10/6/2016

6. Hiawatha Service Initiatives
Ongoing improvements; just this year:
Addition of new Saturday night trains
Track side roll on bikes and pets on trains
Implementation of new peak/off-peak fare system, remaining unreserved
Hiawatha Marketing program using CMAQ funds
Hiawatha 10 RT Corridor Investment Plan (EA/SDP) .

7. Hiawatha Marketing Program
We have a CMAQ funded marketing campaign underway whicn includes web, social, print, radio. Crystal Dupont is our marketing manager and is here today. She and the mkt firm have done some excellent work and if you have any question on that, please let her know.
10/6/2016

8. Chicago-Milwaukee ICPR Corridor EA and SDP
WisDOT
IDOT
FRA
In partnership with Amtrak
Environmental Assessment and Service Development Plan for the Chicago- Milwaukee Hiawatha Service corridor to:
add 3 additional daily round- trip frequencies, for a total of 10 round-trips daily
reduce travel time
Draft Completed; Released October 6th, 2016 with public involvement in October/November
$150 million in infrastructure
Very excited to say that this has been released to the public today, after a 4 year effort. Took much longer than expected and many twist and turns with the RR coordination and changing needs, etc. It is a complex corridor. But this will address capacity issues and increasing ridership, improve connections to other modes (airport) and provide improve transportation alternatives in this congested transportation corridor by providing more train schedule options , which are highly desired by existing and would-be rail users.
10/6/2016

9. 2nd Empire Builder Frequency Twin Cities –La Crosse- Milwaukee-Chicago
Existing Empire Builder Chicago- Seattle/Portland
Over 100,000 riders annually Chicago-TC
Most using for regional travel: 70% of ons/offs in Wisconsin are travelling to locations within that corridor segment
Feasibility study for 2nd train completed in 2015:
2nd round-trip Chicago-TC on the Empire Builder corridor
Existing stations; convenient times that complement the Empire Builder schedule
Favorable ridership and revenue projections supported advancing to the next step
Despite schedule limitations, 1 RT per day, and reliability issues eastbound, strong regional ridership on EB; people trying to use for regional travel. To meet this demand and address the issues, states asked Amtrak to conduct…
10/6/2016

10. 2nd Empire Builder Frequency: TCMC Phase 1 Study
Partners
MnDOT
WisDOT
IDOT
FRA
Ramsey County, MN
La Crosse, WI MPO
MN HS Rail Commission
Next phase: Twin Cities - Milwaukee - Chicago Intercity Passenger Rail Service Phase 1 Study
TCMC study includes:
Analysis of integration with Hiawatha Service
Further operations/capacity modeling and infrastructure needs identification
Concept engineering and capital cost estimates for identified infrastructure
Pre-NEPA activities (Purpose and need, alternatives analysis, outreach)
Expected completion summer 2017
Phase 2 (starting next year) will complete NEPA/SDP requirements for federal funding to implement
TCMC began this summer, builds off of the feasibility study, and includes…
10/6/2016

11. New Milwaukee Intermodal Station Train Concourse
Opened in June, 2016
New roof structure
Pedestrian overhead access to platforms with escalators and elevators
Three new ADA compliant platforms and signage
Completion: June 2016
Cost: $22 million
Nearly 600,000 rail passengers passing through this concourse annually
10/6/2016

12. MIDWEST EQUIPMENT POOL
Illinois
Michigan
Missouri
Wisconsin
Tim and John already spoke about this, but just want t add that this is pretty significant. The MW states have been doing joint planning work together for 20+ years with the MWIRRI, etc. and now we have actually come together to jointly implement something; new equipment, with an joint ownership agreement in place for locos and cars, fleet manager on board, Midwest fleet board governance structure pretty much set up, Very significant and just the beginning I believe for joint MW state activities for our state supported corridors. And now FRA will be bringing us together again with the regional joint planning study.
Ridership opening up more markets, not just individual corridors in a vacuum: Marketing Milwaukee to Detroit/Ann Arbor or Milwaukee to St. Louis helps either thru implementing a tighter and easier connection at Union or with thru trains increases riders on both routes
Improvements to Union Station going to improve linkages
Working together on items with Amtrak that affect all corridors, working as a group more, from equipment mechanical issues to planning to other operational issues
Moved from planning (MWRRI) together to implementing together (MW fleet ownership; MW Fleet board, joint procurement). Significant.
10/6/2016