KENOSHA, Wis. — The Kenosha City Council will consider a resolution on Wednesday in support of a long-discussed commuter rail line to Milwaukee, the Kenosha News reports.
City councils in Racine, Milwaukee, and South Milwaukee have already approved resolutions supporting federal investment toward the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Regional Rail Corridor. The resolution to be considered by Kenosha on Wednesday does not involve any city commitment of funds but supports the concept.
The so-called KRM project dates to 1998, identified a preferred route in 2006, and had a regional transit authority created to fund the project by a Democrat-controlled legislature in 2009, the website Urban Milwaukee reports, but a Republican-controlled legislature killed the project in 2011. The proposal is being revived following a $5 million federal grant to Racine in 2022 to update the earlier plans, which envisioned seven intermediate stops on the 33-mile Union Pacific route between the Kenosha station served by Metra’s UP North line and the Milwaukee Intermodal Station served by Amtrak’s Hiawathas.
A private company floated a proposal for service on that route in 2022 that received state support with the Federal Transit Administration [see “Long-stalled Kenosha-Milwaukee commuter rail proposal …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 23, 2022]. Little has been heard of that proposal since; the website of Wisconsin Transit & Reality Group remains little more than a placeholder. Executive Vice President Michael Garvin told WisBusiness.com that the company had to withdraw because the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacted a potential foreign investor, and said the company is still in discussion with investors.
