Plans & Projects > Rail >

Chicago - Milwaukee Intercity Passenger Rail Corridor

Environmental Assessment and Service Development Plan

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), in partnership with Amtrak, are conducting an Environmental Assessment and Service Development Plan for service improvements on the Amtrak Hiawatha Service between Chicago and Milwaukee. The proposed service improvements include: increasing daily Amtrak Hiawatha Service frequencies from the current seven round-trips to 10 round-trips, and reducing travel times, potentially through an increase in maximum speed to 90 MPH between Rondout, Illinois, and the General Mitchell International Airport (GMIA). The three additional round-trips would be express trains serving downtown Milwaukee, GMIA and downtown Chicago. Environmental Assessment The purpose of the Chicago-Milwaukee Intercity Passenger Rail Service Tier 1 EA is to provide the FRA, WisDOT, IDOT, local governments and the public with a full understanding of the service-wide environmental impacts associated with the alternatives developed to meet the project’s purpose and need. The Tier 1 EA is developed to comply with federal environmental laws and regulations (National Environmental Policy Act) and Wisconsin and Illinois state environmental laws and regulations.

Service Development Plan

The Service Development Plan (SDP) is prepared during the planning phase for intercity passenger rail programs. The SDP lays out the overall scope and approach of the proposed service.

Among the primary objectives of the SDP are:

• To clearly demonstrate the purpose and need for the proposed intercity passenger rail improvements
• To describe the analysis of alternatives for the proposed intercity passenger rail improvements
• To demonstrate the operations and financial feasibility of the proposed intercity passenger rail improvements
• To identify the specific capital improvements necessary to support the additional frequencies. The environmental impacts of the improvements will be analyzed in the EA

Questions about the content of this page:
Arun Rao, arun.rao@dot.wi.gov
Last modified: January 30, 2013