High Speed Rail has gained popularity across many regions of the world and has long been a discussion within the United States transportation developers and policy makers, yet very rarely has it been implemented. In 1991, Wisconsin began considering High Speed Rail for it’s intercity passenger service. An analysis was done on potential ridership, suitable station and rail areas, and train speeds. The initial conclusion was that High Speed Rail would be suitable for Southern Wisconsin, a route connecting Chicago, Illinois to Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area running through Milwaukee and Madison, WI. Additionally, of the three analyzed speeds, the lowest (110mph) was chosen due to the favorability of foreseen profit benefits. With a top speed of 110 mph, this train would not be considered ‘High Speed’ by other countries standards or by critics. Many assessments were made after this in preparation for a rail that would begin construction in 2011. However, in 2010, the project was suspended due to political financial disputes.
Over 20 years later, in a time where Madison, WI would have already had an operating rail into Milwaukee, life would be much different if the High Speed Rail project did go through. The assessments suggest life would have been much different in Madison, WI: Some places more accessible and other more restricted based.
Looking through on two scopes (a local view of Madison and a statewide view of Wisconsin), our analysis begins with prior assessments around the project, re-evaluating methods and missing pieces through GIS based analysis. Additionally, we bring our own data for the assessment of the station location in Madison in to play through original images and landscape observation. e look to find adjustments for the program, adding to the discussion of current assessments of current passenger rails in Wisconsin, such as Amtrak.
Background
Wisconsin has conducted research to develop a high speed rail (HSR) network since 1991, two years after a national proposal to expand rail travel in the United States. Feasibility assessments have been done on high speed rail cost-benefits, environmental impacts, rail station locations, and other factors, at regional and local levels up until today. All in doing so, collaborating with nearby states, the Spanish rail company Talgo, Federal Railroad Administration, and Washington D.C. Our research and GIS analysis will visualize recent feasibility studies and research on the Wisconsin high speed rail- re-evaluating the Madison’s HSR station location, the environmental impacts, and the connectivity throughout the midwest. Through these topics, we ask about the accessibility, services, mobility, and other impacts that that Southern Wisconsin would experience with a HSR. We investigate what might have been overlooked in previous research on the Wisconsin high speed rail project that began in 1989, but has since been halted as of 2010. Through interactive maps (see Visualizing Madison page), our research predicts what Madison and Southern Wisconsin might have looked like with a high speed rail service.
The High-Speed Rail Chicago to Minneapolis/St. Paul route through Madison and Milwaukee official ended in 2011, when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker turned down $810 million of Federal aid that was previously granted to the state of Wisconsin in a tri-state effort to push this route through. Despite this obstacle, the surrounding states of Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan have all continued implementing and assessing the feasibility of High Speed rail. Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) also continues to assess the current and future state of passenger rail and HSR transportation, even recommending to continue looking at paths Milwaukee to Chicago and Milwaukee to Minneapolis/St.Paul corridors (WisDOT 2014, 2). Whether these paths are implemented with or without HSR in the future, the demand certainly is there ( WisDOT 2014 , 6-9).
Even if HSR is not the answer to Wisconsin’s rail dilemma, Amtrak rails, stations, and routes need to be updated. Amtrak Hiawatha Service running from Chicago to Milwaukee is currently experiencing some improvements by increasing service frequencies (WisDOT 2014, 0). However, the Empire Builder, running from Chicago to Seattle, through Minneapolis/St. Paul also has experienced increased ridership in the past few years ( WisDOT 2014, 6-9). WisDOT identifies two types of passenger rail: 1) Intercity Passenger Rail: intended for travelling longer distances, such as the Amtrak’s Empire Builder, and 2) Commuter Rail: intended for short trips and used at a higher frequency per passenger (WisDOT 2014, 2).
Intercity Passenger Rail, such as the Empire Builder or the HSR Chicago to Minneapolis/St. Paul route are developed when rail services demonstrates a demand is increased or where benefits have been identified for the future, such as improving connectivity or coordination (WisDOT 2014, 2).
Through our research we aim to visualize the feasibility assessments and inform readers, citizens, and policymakers about the dialogues between High Speed Chicago to Minneapolis Metro area route, Wisconsin and Madison proposed using exploratory interactives. This process will include digitizing selected findings into primary data from different feasibility assessments across the past few decade. An interactive map will incorporate these datasets on a website along with the case study analysis on the strength, flaws, and missing aspects in the assessment of the high speed station location in Madison. The website will also feature sections on cost-benefit, connectivity, and environmental impacts of the proposed rail.
Although other countries have successfully invested in high speed rails, the United States lags behind. Even so, the United States has been interested in developing High Speed Rail since 1965 (Ashiabor and Wei 2012,3). Historically, the United States is well remembered for its freight trains and its pictorial steam locomotive era in the 1800s. And even after the highway system had been established, Amtrak was still operating up to 5 trips daily between Chicago and Milwaukee, and by 1975 demand was high enough to expand services into Superior and Duluth through MInneapolis (WisDoT 2014, 6-4). Following Budget cuts in the 1980s, Illinois and WIsconsin worked together to survey increased demands for an intercity passenger rail that eventually would become the Hiawatha service (WisDoT 2014, 6-4). Demands are still expanding on this service as ridership increased 85.5% with a decade since 2000. Currently this is one of two Amtrak services offered in Wisconsin. The other being the Empire Builder which runs from Chicago to Seattle and is part of a nationally connected system(see Map 1). To replicate Amtrak’s service, the U.S. government has long proposed a network like this, but didn’t financially pursue it until the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was introduced in 2009 by the Obama Administration (See Map 2). An earlier version of the Chicago Hub Corridor from 2001 is shown in Map 3.
The primary reason for developing high speed rail is to relieve congestion in road networks and/or free up space for freight use even though Wisconsin still experiences issues congestion after Amtrak tried to establish its own rails to solve this problem as well (Ashiabor and Wei 2012, 1). In a country with undoubtedly well designed highway systems and after the development of amtrak, there are very few stresses on freight congestion that a High speed rail would help with (Ashiabor and Wei 2012, 1). Ashiabor and Wei, from the Mineta Transportation institute suggest that “one-time reliability, improved speeds (shorter travel times), and relatively greater safety of HSR compared to other modes of travel are the strongest selling points for HSR in the US [for politicians and creating policy]” (Ashiabor and Wei 2012, 1). While congestion s a valid reason to rebuild a rail, there isn’t enough pull factors as other countries with high speed rail routes- where Europe and China’s cities are much larger and closer together, providing a goldilocks scenario that is just right for intercity high speed rail ( Garmendia, 2012 ).
The definition of high speed tends to vary tremendously and across time and projects. In the Tri-State study, three speeds were analyzed, the slowest being 125 mph and the fastest at 300mph ( TMS/Benesch 1991, v). Within a decade, the slowest speed had been selected ( Federal Railroad Administration 2001, 5 ). WisDOT is currently, as of Fall 2016, involved in increasing passenger service of the Chicago to Milwaukee Hiawatha Service. The speed of this train, which is currently in planning stages, would have a top speed of 79 mph ( WisDOT 2016, 0).
A demand for a rail between Chicago and the Twin Cities metro area was identified long before, and still exists. WIth 70% of passengers that boarded the Empire Builder in Wisconsin in 2010 departed at a station between St. Paul/Minneapolis and Chicago. This particular corridor of the Empire Builder experiences challenges with delays and interference with freight use on the tracks (WisDOT 2014, 6-9). The Wisconsin Rail Plan 2030 releases a report every 5 years on the current and future status of both passenger and freight trains.
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Connectivity