First US made streetcar in years unveiled

Oregon Iron Works has produced the first American made streetcar since the 1960's. Portland has placed an order for six of the streetcars, while Tuscon, AZ has placed an order for seven more. I think this is a great move by the Oregon Iron Works, especially since now is a time when people are demanding green technologies and "Made in America" products.


After the closing of the GM plant in Janesville, all I hear on the news is how GM back stabbed us or how Janesville's economy is going to plummet, just basically feeling sorry for ourselves. Why don't we do something positive with the factory, did we really think that a large SUV assembly line would be economically viable in the future? Is it really that hard to think in the future in stead of in the now? We should follow Oregon's lead and start producing streetcars or commuter trains or even "high" speed trains. I'm sure Bombardier or Siemens would love to help us start a local manufactoring plant in Janesville, we have the work force all we need is the work.

Vacation

Hey Everybody,

I'm going on vacation for a week and a half. While I'm gone, be sure to check out The Infrastructurist and The Transport Politic. Both are very good sites for news on trains and infrastructure.

LaHood in Spain

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is finishing up a trip to Europe to examine their use of high speed rail. He vised the countries of Germany (Deutsch Bahn), France (SNCF), and Spain (Renfe). It's good to see that our leaders are looking to other countries to see how we should model our system, I would also like to point out that Ray LaHood is just following in Gov. Doyle's footsteps.

From my experiences in Germany and their train system, here is what I hope Mr.LaHood takes away from his trip to Europe:

1. The majority of passenger rail should be state run. This allows for more profitable routes to subsidize less popular routes, making sure that everyone and everyplace is included by the rail system. There is a great article over on the Transport Politic debating public versus private ownership, it can be found here.

2. Each country has there own engineering companies helping build the railways and the trains. Germany has Siemens and some parts of Bombardier, France has Alstom (all three produce trains), and Spain has ACS which builds the tracks. The U.S. needs its own rail company to build our equipment. Why can't GM build trains? The U.S. government now has a 60% stake in the company, so we'll see if that leads to anything. Although, initially we may have to purchase rail equipment from Europe just like Russia and China have done, since the European companies are so far ahead of the U.S. in rail technology.

3. High speed rail is going to need a lot more money. I'll just leave this one to a graph:

UW Madison Students Promoting Rail in Wisconsin

Found this article on the Wisconsin Radio Network. It's good to see students taking a proactive approach to encouraging rail in Wisconsin. The student group is called "WISPRIG Advance Public Transit", whose facebook page can be found here. WISPRIG stands for WISconsin Public Research Interest Group. Also, it is nice to see students advocating for rail since they are a significant portion of train ridership. Hopefully the federal government with send some of the $8 billion marked for rail to the Midwest to help fund this rail link, I haven't heard an exact date on this, but from what I hear it could be announced as early as late summer.

Go Student Rail Groups! The more talk the better.

Blueprint America: Road to the Future

On May 20th, PBS aired a documentary on the transportation infrastructure in the US. It highlighted the cities of Denver, Portland, and New York City. I was very impressed with the video, which can be found here. The documentary focused more on the mind set of transportation and less on the technical aspects. One of the questions of the documentary was, how do you combat sprawl? (Although I would have liked to see more on while sprawl is bad for us). In Denver, the city decided to build a highway or "belt-way" around the city. This helped lead Denver to be, at one point, the third most congested city in America with many days deemed too polluted to be outside. Portland chose a different route. Instead of building an expressway through town, they decided to put the money towards transit including light rail and biking. Now Portland is one of the most attractive places to live in the U.S.

All in all, I highly recommend watching it.

Couple notes:
-Oregon Iron Works is building the first street car in America in over many decades
-I believe Denver is slowing turning itself around with investments in light rail

NPR on Trains

On the recommendation of my mom, I listened to a segment from NPR Wisconsin on the future of trains in America. The first half of the segment is a talk with Phillip Longman, Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation. Author, “The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity.” He talked about putting more freight on trains and how there are issues in Chicago (watch the video below from PBS on the issues in Chicago). The second half of the segment was a talk with Simon Montague, Director of Corporate Communications, Eurostar high-speed passenger train in the UK and Europe. He discusses how high speed rail in Europe is competing well with the planes and roads.

A link to the talk is here, and I suggest watching this picture slide show of HSR from Flickr while listening to the talk.

Why should you care about infastructure?

As I have mentioned before, PBS is doing a brilliant series called "Blueprint America" which looks at the different aspects (esp. cost and needs) of the infrastructure of America. A nice video explaining what they are doing can be found here.

On May 20th at 9pm (central time), PBS will air a documentary called "Road to the Future." If it is anything like the previous segments for blueprint America, it will be a good, informative show. From the preview it looks like it will emphasize on the effects of urban sprawl and how we can handle it.

Exams are over

Sorry for the break, but I just finished my third year at Boston University. Now I'll be able to update this blog more often. But first, I have a engine static test for the BU rocket team to deal with. So, I'll talk to you all after that.

WSJ article on high speed rail in Spain

In today's Wall Street Journal, there is an article about the AVE system in Spain, which is the high speed rail system. It discusses the recent success of the train lines and how the most recent line, Madrid to Barcelona, has with in a year, captured more than fifty percent of the travel between the two cities (the fifty going to cars and airplanes).

Also mentioned is how President Obama has made comparisons of the US to Spain. Spain has recently made a huge investment in high speed rail to try and surpass France and Germany, and at the pace they are going they will. Another country that is trying to become a world leader in high speed rail is China, which is looking to surpass Japan.

The article is one of a few articles I have read that don't discount high speed rail as a "train enthusiast fantasy" that will cost too much. The WSJ writer Thomas Catan does a good job of describing the problems and successes of high speed rail in Spain.

I believe that in order to get a real high speed rail system (none of this 110 mph stuff, but 200 mph) an investment on the order of $100 billion is needed. Unfortunately, that will probably not happen soon as some people still think that trains are just a waste of money (Sen. McCain I'm talking to you).

Picture from the article:

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

I'm on Boat

This picture of the ICE-TD on a boat going from Denmark to Germany:


Reminded me of this (heads up: this is the uncensored video):

Letter sent to LaHood from Doyle and others

I found out through The Transport Politic that Doyle, along with other governors from the Midwest and the mayor of Chicago, sent a letter to the secretary of the Department of Transportation Ray LaHood showing their support for a Midwest regional intercity rail system. This system would be a hub and spoke system, with the hub being Chicago. Some of the spokes would go to:
-St. Louis
-St. Paul/Minneapolis (this would go through Madison, WI)
-Detroit (and then on to Pontiac, MI)
-Indianapolis
-Cleveland

However, the governors have suggested three branches that would be the priority of the Midwest Regional Rail:
-Chicago to St. Louis
-Chicago to Pontiac through Detroit
and, last but not least
-Chicago to Madison!

The governors say that they would need around $3.5 billion of the stimulus money (which probably won't happen, as California is in a good position to get $4 billion of the $8 billion available). Though they probably wont get what they ask for, this is a good step to creating a Midwest Rail system and shows the support throughout the Midwest for such a system to exist. Click here for the pdf of the letter.

Here is a pic included in the letter, showing the three lines:


P.S. I need to mention this:
BU is Nation Champions in Men's Hockey!!!!
GO BU!! (and as always BC Sucks!)

Wired and Wireless

Two things I think would improve rail travel in the U.S.: Electric powered trains and Wireless internet.

Using overhead wires to power trains allows for trains to take the energy the create when breaking and put it back onto the power grid. When a diesel train breaks, it lets the energy dissipate as heat to the outside atmosphere. This is basically letting energy disappear into thin air. The biggest problem I forsee with installing this is the aesthetics. I know there are many people out there who would object to the look of overhead wires, but I counter that with, wouldn't you rather have no emission from trains in your city than diesel?

As for wireless internet, it is something rail has an advantage over car and plane. Of those three, rail is the only one that has the capacity to allow for wireless internet access to its travelers. I know, in the US, Amtrak and the Boston commuter rail lines are experimenting with wireless internet on its trains. Here is a video of the new wireless internet system in the Thalys train network in Belgium, France, Germany, and The Netherlands:

If they build it, they will come, but what will they be riding in?

So if the line from Chicago to Madison is built, what train sets will be used? Will it be a continuation of what Amtrak runs on the Hiawatha line? Or is this a time to introduce a new, more attractive, rail car to the line?

First up, what is used by Amtrak right now:

The locomotive is a GE Genesis which pulls a hand full of comet rail cars.



*Note that the locomotive is an older version of the current one used. Also, this photo was taken from here.

Now, I know this is standard Amtrak, but who says that this new rail service will be under Amtrak or needs to use the same rail stock?

So, I have compiled a list of different diesel trains that might contend for this route:

My first choice should not come as a surprise to those who know me. If I had my way, the train arriving in Madison would be an ICE-TD, made by Bombardier. This train currently runs to Berlin-Copenhagen route (the one with the boat ferry pictured below). This train is able to run up to speeds of 200 kph or 125 mph. This means that train is fast enough to meet the 110 mph goal. Also, having ridden in this train I can speak to how comfortable this train is. On the downside, it's service history is not the best.



*This picture was taken by me when taking the train from Copenhagen to Berlin (and then transferring on to Dresden). It is in a car ferry that goes from Denmark to Germany.

Keeping on the topic of German trains, another option is the RegioSwinger. This train is like the ICE TD in that it is deisel and it tilts. However its top speed is only 160 kph or 100 mph. However, this is another train that I have taken in Germany and can vouch for it being a nice comfortable ride. I took this train from Dresden to Freiberg on the Dresden-Nürnberg line.



*Note that this train's destination is actually Leipzig and the photo was taken from here.

Another one of my favorite trains is the Bombardier Talent class of trains. However, its top speed is only 140 kph or 87 mph. But just for the heck of it here is a picture of it:



This train would be best served running more regional routes in Wisconsin, such as (these are just ideas) Green Bay - Wausau - Eau Claire - Minneapolis or Madison - Appleton - Green Bay or Madison -Janesville - Beloit - Rockford.

Another train that looks a lot a like the Talent is the Desiro class of trains made by Siemens. Also, they are currently in use in the US in California for the Sprinter trains. Here is a pic of the Desiro in Germany:



There is just ONE BIG ISSUE with these trains. It is that according to FRA (Federal Railway Administration) these trains are too light to run on freight lines. That means, as the law now stands, these trains would have to run on dedicated "light" rail lines or not be allowed to operate. (Note: I'm not sure what the ICE TD is classified as)

Two trains that might be allowed are the Accela trains from the Northeast Corridor or the X2000 from Sweden.



This a picture of the Acela Express just south of downtown Boston. The major issue with using this train is that it requires overhead electrical wires. These are more environmentally friendly than diesel power systems. Also, most other countries use the overhead wire system.



This is a picture of me in front of a X2000 train is Sundsvall, Sweden. This train is also electrically powered. Also in the background is the train I was transferring to, a Regina train, destination Ostersund, Sweden.

I feel that it would be beneficial to convert US rail lines to an all electrical system. But that's a topic for another time...

California High Speed Rail

A great youtube clip on the high speed rail proposal in California. I really like how they discuss some of the engineering aspects of high speed rail.

Enjoy:

Interesting video from Chicago

Today I came across this video from WTTW Chicago discussing the rail stimulus and where it would go in Chicago. Since this video is from Chicago it mainly discusses the Chicago-St. Louis corridor, but it does mention how Chicago would be a hub for a Midwest *high* speed rail network.

Using Chicago as the center of a Midwest train system would be ideal for developing any type of rail service in the Midwest. As the video discusses, train times have DECREASED over the years, not increased. Though we have more efficient trains and ..., well that's it compared to years ago, it is easy to see that the lack of investing in rail is coming back to haunt us.

Building a new infrastructure won't be easy and it won't be cheap. But we need to start somewhere, otherwise things like traffic jams, air traffic delays, and land lost to enormous highways and airports will get much, much worse.

Umm...What?

I think the people on the other side of Lake Michigan are smoking something funny.

I recently came across an article about a proposed maglev (magnetically levitated) train system that would connect Detroit and Lansing, Michigan. Now this from a quick glance does not sound too outrageous as plans have been on and off for years about a maglev train from LA to Las Vegas (I believe the best choice is steel on steel rail). Then I read the article...

Here are some of the promises from the company planning this system:
-All $2.3 billion is privately funded
-Detroit auto makers will make the cars
-The system will be powered by solar and hydrogen power
-Money will be made from the excess electricity produced by the system.

All I can do is laugh and say "keep dreaming". There are much more cost effective (and not so outlandish) ways to go about this. Wouldn't a normal commuter train work just fine?

Well, at least they have the right idea of using rail.

Oh, yeah and the Michigan government seems to be taking this seriously by holding task force meetings and the like.

Here's a pic:



All I can say is WTF?

Wisconsin is on the Map!

Well, it is the map over at the transport politic.

Also recent reports from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin State Journal, and a few other blogs have noted that the rail link between Madison and Milwaukee is one of the farthest along as far as planning and environmental studies. This, in essence, means that this rail corridor is one of the most likely to get funding from the stimulus bill.

The trains from Madison to Milwaukee would then continue on to Chicago (via Racine/Kenosha) and expand the current Hiawatha service (which runs from Chicago to Milwaukee). Plans are for there to be 6 round trips a day between Madison and Chicago.

As far as funding goes, Gov. Doyle is requesting around $500 million to completely cover the cost of the Milwaukee-Madison corridor (I do not know if the operating cost is included in this figure).

Future plans for this rail line include extending the line to Minneapolis/St. Paul. This would greatly increase the access between the two cities, seeing as there is just one train a day between two of the largest cities in the Midwest.

Also, other future plans call for trains to go to Green Bay from Milwaukee.

Below is a map (courtesy of the TransportPolitic) of the proposed and current service:



Side note:
Other top contenders, in my opinion, for the rail stimulus bill are:
-California High Speed Rail Project
-Chicago-St. Louis corridor upgrades
-Seattle-Portland Corridor
-Extension of the Northeast corridor to North Carolina
-A corridor in Ohio connecting Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland

Governor Doyle in Spain

Way back at the beginning of March, Governor Doyle visited Spain to learn about/discuss high speed rail. More specifically he was interested in discussing high speed train manufacturing and use ideas from Spain to help the Wisconsin industry. This story was reported on by NPR and has a radio segment as well.

I believe that Spain is a decent model for how Wisconsin and the United States should build and implement our high speed train system. Though most of Spain and Europe have an overall higher population density. areas in California, the northeast, and even parts of the Midwest have high enough population densities to support (ie turn a profit) high speed rail.

Another note in the radio segment is on regional rail. I would love to see regional rail in Wisconsin. Being able to take a train to Milwaukee or Chicago would be great. Also, maybe one day having a train to Janesville, the fox valley, Green Bay, or the Dells from Madison would be great.

Hopefully one day the old GM plant in Janesville will become a modern, high-tech center for rail manufacturing. Hopefully.

My Apologies

Sorry I've been away from this blog for a while. Last week was spring break, which I spent in Ireland. Lots of things have been happening (notably Gov. Doyle in Spain) so keep an eye out as I play catch up with the blog.

Chicago High Speed Rail Hub

I found an article recently on the Chicago Tribune website, discussing plans for a new station next to the existing Union station for high speed rail.

*Note: This station design was from a contest and currently not planned to be constructed.

This is what the new station would look like:



This station kind of reminds of the new main train station in Berlin (in German, the Hauptbahnhof) or even the proposed new main train station in Stuttgart. (sorry the site is in German, but it has cool pictures). Also, other designs submitted for the train station in Chicago can be found here.

Just think, you could take a high speed train (we're talking over 100 mph) from Milwaukee, Madison, or Minneapolis and arrive at that station in downtown Chicago.

Gov. Doyle in Spain

The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that Wisconsin Governor Doyle is/was in Spain to discuss transportation manufacturing. It seems that he has seen the writing on the wall that passenger rail is coming and Wisconsin could benefit from the manufacturing of rail vehicles.

I believe this is a good step by Gov. Doyle and shows that he is able to think to the future.

The article appeared in the WSJ on Monday Feb 23rd and is written by Mark Pitsch.

New York Times mentions High Speed Rail in Madison, WI

On February 19th, the New York Times published an article by Micheal Cooper discussing the effect of the stimulus package on high speed rail.

In the article, Mr. Cooper discussed how the biggest and farthest along high speed rail project is the one in California and how part of the stimulus bill would go to the project.

Then further down in the article, Mr. Cooper mentions other prominent high speed rail projects across the U.S.:

"Many other states also have big plans. North Carolina, which is part of the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor, will seek some of the stimulus money to speed rail service between Charlotte and Washington. Wisconsin wants to use some of it on a line linking Madison and Chicago, hoping to have trains running up to 110 m.p.h."
(Bold my own)

It is exciting to know that other people are discussing a rail project in the great state of Wisconsin. It is also exciting to think about taking the train down to Chicago from Madison for a weekend vacation or to O'Hare International Airport (ORD). Also, with an estimated rail speed of 110 mph, that would mean that using a train would be FASTER than using a car.

Another interesting point that Mr. Cooper made was that the U.S. defines high speed rail as above 90 mph. Compare that to trains in Germany and Japan which have trains that run at over 180 mph (more that double!), that's slightly (really) pathetic.

PBS-NOW Video

This is a video from the PBS program "NOW".

I think it is really well done and what they talk about can be applied to Madison.

The Good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good: Congress passed the stimulus bill, which contained around $8 billion for high speed rail projects in the US. Also, Amtrak is set to receive around $1.3 billion.

The bad: Public Transportation was not so lucky, falling short of what is necessary, but still received $8.4 Billion.

The ugly: Our representatives and senators who believe funding for rail is pork. Namely John Boehner (R-OH).

I wonder if Rep. Boehner knows about the Midwest High Speed Rail Association? Does he realize that the funding in the stimulus bill could go to his district? Probably not, for both questions.

(As a side note, the article about Republicans upset about rail spending notes that David Obey (D-WI)supports funding for the arts.)

UPDATE: I'm not the only one ripping on Rep. John Boehner:
-California High Speed Rail Blog
-Transport Politic

Deutsche Bahn expresses intrest in high speed rail in the US

A couple of months ago, Rep. John Mica (R-Fl) and a few others put our a request for notices of interest in developing high speed rail in the US. Among those who responded was Deutsche Bahn (DB) International (on behalf of DB AG Berlin).

Working outside of Germany wouldn't be new for DB International, who have worked on projects all over the world, including Qatar and England.

Other companies who expressed interest include Bombardier (produces regional and long distance train sets for DB), Siemens (produces the Velaro train platform which has been used by Germany as the ICE 3, by Spain, and now by China), Renfe (the national rail in Spain), and Alstorm (produces high speed trains for France). A full list, with their letters of interest can be found here.

Also a good blog post on this can be found here, at the transportpolitic.

Feingold Supports Rail (and a story from Germany)

It's good to know that our Senator Russ Feingold supports investing in rail to help improve our infrastructure.

From his website:

"Feingold similarly supported investment in transit and passenger rail infrastructure in the letter, which also would help reduce transportation barriers."

I know he has bigger fish to fry like the whole saving our constitution thing. But it's nice to know where he stands.

The note about transportation barriers is interesting. To me this means rail is a good way for people to get our and see more places. When I was in Germany, travel by train was extremely easy. You just buy your ticket and go. No security, not many delays, and loads of comfort on board. This allowed for very easy travel, very encouraging for people to get up and get out.

One of my favorite stories from Germany was where one Saturday two of my friends and I decided to buy a German weekend pass. This allowed us to travel anywhere in Germany as long as it was by regional rail, and was good for up to five people. When we arrived at the train station that day we did not know where we wanted to go. When we entered the main hall, we looked to the train departure board. From this we decided to go to Görlitz, Germany. From there we could walk over to Poland. Since we had about a half hour to kill before the train left, we called another friend and asked him if he wanted to go to Poland, and he did.

Being in Germany allowed us to travel to Poland and we only had to decide to go a half hour before. Now that's breaking down transportation barriers.

Madison to Chicago

There is a proposal out there that will extend the Hiawatha service (that currently runs from Milwaukee to Chicago) to the Madison. Here are a couple of the main points:

-8 trains a day from Madison to Chicago
-2 hour 45 min travel time (which is about the same as in a car, although that's if you don't get caught in too much traffic)
-Trains operating at up to 110 mph (which is technically not high speed, high speed rail is said to be operating at over 125 mph), which is a good starting point for new rail service
-Wisconsin has set aside $80 million to be matched by federal funds for the project

Let's get this going! Write to you representative or senator and let him/her know that this would be a great project for Wisconsin to pursue. Why?

-Reduce cars on the road between Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago
-Miss the traffic outside of Chicago
-Environmental benefits/help stop global warming
-Create jobs in Wisconsin

and not to mention:

-NO MORE TOLLS when driving in Illinois!

So please, give your money to the hardworking people of Wisconsin, not the bureaucrats ("cough, Blagojevich, cough") of Illinois.

Here is a map of the proposed route:

China passing the U.S. in rail infrastructure

I found this article while on the "Trains for America" blog. It is an article in the New York Times written by Keith Bradsher. The article talks about how China is currently in a spending frenzy, like the one it seems we are about to have. But unlike our plan (which currently has very few provisions for rail), the Chinese plan calls for massive construction of high speed, intercity, commuter, and freight train lines running throughout China. Highlight a few points from the article:

-This year China plans to spend $88 billion on intercity rail
-Our (American) plan calls for 5% of roughly $800 billion to be spent on transportation, (which will be mostly highways)
-China has spent almost as much as they did on the Three Gorges Dam on one high speed train line
-In the last FOUR years China has built as many miles of high speed rail as Europe has in the last TWENTY years

While China surges ahead in high speed, intercity, commuter, and freight rail, the US is left in the dust. President Obama has not made nearly any provisions for rail infrastructure in his bail out plan, especially compared to the Chinese. This is very disappointing of the new president, I expected better for rail when I voted for him.

Here is the URL of the NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23yuan.html?_r=1

Probably the best "How do they do it?"

This is one of my favorite shows on the Science channel:

Part 1:


Part 2:

Football Train

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a train from Milwaukee to Lambeau Field for Packers games? It could carry many of the people who have the Milwaukee season ticket packages and take all of those cars off the road. Also, this train could stop in Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Neenah, and Appleton. No doubt many of Green Bay's season ticket holders hail from the fox valley. It would also be nice if there was regular service along this corridor.

Just saying, it would be nice.

Oh yeah, and for game days the train should look like this:

The Powerful Dells Lobby

Most likely, any new high (or just higher) speed rail will pass through the town of Wisconsin Dells. This city would look to gain more tourism if a train system were to stop there. The most likely rail line would have Chicago on one end and Minneapolis on the other. These cities are great areas to draw tourists from. I believe the Dells would see their businesses grow significantly if they were connected to a new rail network.
Now to the Lobby. When I was in elementary school, the Dells were able to lobby the Wisconsin government to pass a law requiring public schools to start after the labor day weekend, allowing for more people to make a last summer trip to the Dells.

If the Dells lobby can do this, just think what they can do if they get behind high speed rail.

Cargo Train Commercial

Saw this commercial while watching the inauguration coverage. I liked how it poked fun at cars and how trains use less fuel. I also like how train companies are running commercials to get their name out.

High Speed Rail in downtown Madison, are you crazy?

I've heard rumors that Madison might be getting high speed rail and that some people are advocating that the high speed train stop in downtown Madison. I believe that the high speed train should have a stop at the airport. To me, this makes much more sense both practically and economically.
-Connecting our high speed rail to the airport is crucial to have an integrated transportation infrastructure, and the airport already has the basic parking set up and enough room to accommodate a decent station.
-Another problem with having the high speed rail stop downtown is the amount of time needed for the train to get downtown. This would increase train times dramatically, not to mention the problem of building high speed track in downtown Madison.

I believe the best solution is to have the high speed rail stop only at the airport and be connected to a commuter train that runs from Middleton (or even Cross Plains or further out) to the airport that stops in downtown Madison.

Trains in Europe

This is video slide show of a bunch of different trains I saw while in Europe. Hope you enjoy:

Bikes on Trains

The title picture got me thinking about all the people I say on that train with their bikes. Where the wald bahn operates is not by any means heavily populated (it actually borders the Bavarian National Forest). Allowing bikes on trains is essential for regional and local trains in Wisconsin for multiple reasons. First, it is enviromentally friendly to encourage people to bike to the train from their homes to where ever their destination might be. Second, the lack of city public transport in most towns means that if don't want to walk from the train station to your destination you need a car, allowing bikes increases the range of places people can go by just taking the train (no offense to Wisconsin city buses, but they need work). And third, I saw in Europe that people going for bike rides will take the train to the bike trails and then bike, it allows people to get out of the city to relax. Bellow are some pics from the web of people biking and riding:

Note about the Title Pic

The title picture now is a picture of the Wald Bahn in eastern Baveria, Germany. I took this train in the spring of 2008 to go visit Bayerisch Eisentstien, which is where my great-grandfather is from.

Welcome

I've Started this blog to talk about getting (better) trains in the U.S. specifically Wisconsin.