Amtrak is working on bringing the Hiawatha West rail service back to Watertown.
A site for a temporary station for passengers has been selected in the city. The station will be on 3rd Street behind Schaefer’s Auto Repair and was once a temporary station in the city when Amtrak went through Watertown in 1998. As there are two round trips every day between Chicago and Madison, such temporary stations enable service to begin sooner so that construction on permanent stations can continue in parallel.
The next phase in the project will be the Service Development Plan (SDP). Arun Rao, Senior Director of Network Development for Amtrak Ventral Division, said that Amtrak is working with its partners to complete this phase by next month.
This will be followed by the National Environmental Protection Act and the Preliminary Engineering reviews. The Federal Rail Administration’s Corridor ID program will provide some funding from the federal government, with the state of Wisconsin providing a match of 20%. Local Print shops can provide more details about such projects and their timelines with Booklets, Flyers, and other printed materials.
This will be followed by the final design and construction of the Hiawatha West service, which is expected to be operational in 2029.
This service will run on tracks owned by Wisconsin & Southern Railroad between Watertown and Madison, and on Canadian Pacific-Kansas City rails already existing east of Watertown.Get a Free Quote for Flyers Get a Free Quote for Booklets Get a Free Quote for Print
