Earlier this week the former Amtrak Station in Milwaukee was officially opened, after renovation, as the Milwaukee Intermodal Station.
The $16M project has renewed the station's interior/exterior spaces, added restaurant/office space, and combined Amtrak rail and several inter/intra-city bus lines (Milwaukee County Transit System, Greyhound, Lamers, Indian Trails, and Wisconsin Coach Lines… but not the Badger Bus) at the station.
This site posted a photo tour of the old Amtrak train station last year (before renovation) and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has noted a marked improvement over the previous facility (the article title gives much away: "From the Bones of a Mid-Century Dud, a Gleaming Gem Arises"). Local TV station TMJ4's video report shows footage of the station's interior and Flickr user Computjeramey has uploaded a set of construction/finished photos.
Image courtesy of Compujeramey
The improvements look significant - primarily with regard to the interior accommodations/experience and the markedly improved transportation linkages at this single point (between rail/bus service).
Amtrak provides regular service between Milwaukee, Mitchell Airport, and Chicago's Union Station - previously most bus service (particularly from trips originating outside of Milwaukee) would drop passengers off several blocks away from Milwaukee's train station - requiring another trip (cab, bus, walking) to make the Amtrak connections. The intermodal station should make this experience vastly more convenient (and each of the service types more competitive with driving).
The exterior seems to be regular for contemporary projects (large glass windows); I had a certain affinity for the older design's arched exterior.
I've always been struck by the location of the Milwaukee Train Station, and its relation to the rest of the city. I can imagine a time in which the station served as a connection between several neighborhoods (located adjacent/between the Downtown, Historic Third Ward, Industrial Valley area, and Marquette University area) was a vibrant connection between these two neighborhoods.
I've always loved the downtown train station - the type of place that drops you off right in the middle of all the action. Unfortunately, the Milwaukee station never entirely felt like a downtown station to me because it is cutoff from its older connections by multiple highway/interstate connections (including the Marquette Interchange). I guess it's not on the wrong side of the tracks, it's just on the wrong side of the roadways that line the downtown area. Therefore I was pleased to see that taxi queuing area was included with the renovation, which will hopefully create easier connections to the downtown area.
Apparently around 500,000 passengers currently use the Milwaukee station - a number to likely increase with the new bus service. The question is how can Milwaukee best integrate the station, and its passengers, with the city's surrounding areas (downtown, lakefront, etc.)?
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Filed under Transit and Transportation with 3 Comments
|3 Responses to “Milwaukee's Newly Renovated Intermodal Train/Bus Station”
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November 28th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Having grown up in Milwaukee, I can say it's about time they upgraded that station. It was quite depressing before. And the bus depot was not fun either. Now the city needs to get serious about light rail, and there needs to be serious talk about a higher-speed train between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Minneapolis.
Also, my father is an amateur photographer and has some more shots of the station on his flickr page:
http://flickr.com/photos/pear52
November 28th, 2007 at 12:41 am
Justin - You have made some great comments and I agree on just about all of your points. I've also felt the Chicago/Milwaukee/Madison/Minneapolis corridor is a strong candidate for improved rail service (one train a day between Chicago-Milwaukee-Minneapolis, with no stop in Madison?).
Thank you for the link to your Father's flickr page - he has some great shots!
December 1st, 2007 at 9:43 am
Glad you could find a use for my photos.
You refer to a time when the station was popular and had lots of riders forming a connection between neighborhoods, I regret to inform you that this never really existed.
There was another station a few blocks away (on the other side of 794) that was at one time a flourishing center of people-moving power. Unfortunately, that went by the wayside with the massive interstate build-out that was timed with the construction of the station at today's location.
Your vision of a station connecting neighborhoods certainly has a good chance of arriving now with the development of the new station and I can't wait to see what the future holds.