OUT OF THE BLUE

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

As a member of the early 00’s migration to Madison, I can tell you: this small town is looking more and more like a bigger city. Traffic is one example. It’s worse now than when I moved here three years ago. Madison.com has a Wisconsin State Journal article (full text) about the Wisconsin DOT’s new Madison WI Area Congestion Map. You can also view a freeway congestion map for Milwaukee WI and a freeway congestion map for Chicago IL.

Although… do ya really need a map to tell you that I-90/94 from the Illinois-Wisconsin border west is going to be moving slow every Friday from now until school starts in fall?

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I’m planning a trip to Texas this summer. Nothing major, head down, hang out for a few days, and ride back to Wisconsin in some grungy schlep car. (I’ll probably be hanging on for dear life as a result of making that smart ass remark…) At this point the issue is getting to Texas. For my car, it’s a long drive. So, I’ve looked at two options. The first is flying; fast but expensive. Second is Amtrak. Slow- it’ll take me two days instead of four hours- but, I get to lean back and relax and see a good portion of the middle of the country, and I just like taking the train. So Amtrak it is, but I’m going first class.

In planning the trip, looking at train schedules, etc., I’ve noticed a few things though. If you want to fly, it’s pretty easy if you’re willing to just fork over the cash. I could fly out of Madison, change planes somewhere, and land exactly where I’m going without a lot of detailed planning. Point A, to Point B. Amtrak isn’t set up that way. With Amtrak, you have to start where you are and search for the nearest train station (which may be a good distance away). Then you have to see if the trains that stop at that station are on the routes that go to your destination. If they do, you’re a lucky dog and I hate you.

My train, the Texas Eagle, runs between Chicago and San Antonio. In my case, I’m close to two possible stations: Columbus, and Milwaukee WI. So I have to work backwards: how do I get to Chicago? I could take the Empire Builder which runs from Columbus. If I do that, it won’t get me to Chicago before the Texas Eagle leaves. So that’s out. I could take a thruway bus, which will take 4+ hours and stop at every podunk town between here and Chicago, which Amtrak seems to think is a good idea. The Texas Eagle only leaves once a day, so if I miss it, I’m stuck at Union Station. No thanks. That’s out too.

I’ve taken the Hiawatha between Milwaukee and Chicago before, and that’s a 90 minute trip. Columbus to Milwaukee to Chicago already won’t work. I don’t want to drive, and have to leave my car in Milwaukee, then have to out of my way coming back to get it, so I need a way to Milwaukee. Turns out Badger Bus does several milk runs a day between Madison and Milwaukee, one of which will stop at the Amtrak station, at a fraction of the time and cost of a thruway bus to Chitown. Sweet. The end result is, I hop on Badger Bus at Madison, take that to Milwaukee, have time to chill, check baggage, and have some lunch, ride to Union Station, and again have plenty of time betwen trains. It’ll be a cool trip, but what a pain in the ass.
There are train tracks that run from Madison to Chicago. Metra reaches up through the northwestern burbs all the way to Harvard, IL. If you follow the rail line heading northwest out of Harvard, there’s rail service all the way to Madison. Wouldn’t it be cool if Wisconsin would get its act together, form a regional transportation authority with Illinois, and run rail service down that line to hook up with Metra? That line also goes through Janesville, and passes within range of Beloit and Rockford IL. Now, where I work there are a lot of people that commute to Madison from Janesville. So not only would it make my life easier getting to Chicago, but it would make things easier for all those people that drive up and down I-90, too.

*sigh*

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