More ghosts from Madison’s past…
At the former site of the city’s Milwaukee Road station, a passenger train sits dormant.
Retail shops now inhabit the former passenger cars, and the station itself houses a bicycle shop.
The good news is this won’t be the last passenger train in the city. Madison will be getting passenger rail service to Milwaukee and Chicago in the next few years. The State of Wisconsin has already selected a building in downtown Madison for the new station, and the trains are scheduled to begin running in 2013.
I for one can’t wait. I’d love to be able to take a train to get to Milwaukee or Chicago. There are also proposals for train service from Madison to Minneapolis. In light of our addiction to fossil fuels, this would be a good thing. This country needs to rediscover the fact that trains are a much more efficient way to move people (both intercity and intra-city).
I did not know there were shops in those cars.
I’ve never actually been inside, but from the station side of the cars, it looks like there are a couple of storefronts for artists, etc., in the cars.