A high-speed rail stop could be located near downtown Madison under two new Amtrak station proposals.
Martin Rifken, owner of the 700 block of Williamson Street, has proposed two different stops downtown, one on Williamson Street and the other behind the Kohl Center.
""If students need to take a kind of transportation that's only at Willy Street, then they could take [the train] from the Kohl Center,"" Rifken said. ""This stop wouldn't have a place to bring cars and park them, but they would be able to have taxi and bus drop-off.""
The Kohl Center stop, which would be located across the street from the old Badger Bus Depot, would be intended as a convenient stop for traveling students. However, Rifken said the proposal needs support from officials in charge of the project.
""It will probably be approved if [government and transportation officials] believe that that's where the rail should be,"" Rifken said about the two proposed stops.
The Department of Transportation has expressed support for placing a stop near the Dane County Regional Airport that would eventually connect to Minneapolis. The state Legislature recently approved use of federal funds for a Madison-Milwaukee line. However, funding for a Minneapolis line has not yet been approved.
Janet Piraino, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's chief of staff, said although Cieslewicz thinks it would be beneficial to have the high-speed rail stop as close to downtown as possible, he realizes there are still a number of approval steps needed before a Williamson Street stop could become a reality.
""We're waiting for information from the federal and state transportation officials before we can say how likely it will be,"" Piraino said. ""We're surely going to try to make a downtown station work.""
