RACINE, Wis. — The city of Racine is continuing efforts to revive the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail project along Union Pacific’s line through those communities, with the Racine Common Council calling for a contract to study infrastructure needs for the project.
According to the construction industry publication the Daily Reporter, the council passed a resolution earlier this month for Racine’s mayor and city clerk to enter a contract with DB E.C.O. North America, a consulting arm of Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, for a study to be completed by spring 2025. The contract, which has yet to be completed, would see DB E.C.O. North America create groups for concept planning, decision making, and pursuit of federal funding. Racine received a $5 million federal grant in 2022 to update earlier plans for the service.
The “KRM” project dates to 1998 and had a regional transit authority created for funding by a Democratic-controlled legislature in 2009, only to have it killed by a Republican-led legislature in 2011. The ealier plans called for seven intermediate stops on the 33-mile route, which would run from the Kenosha station currently served by Metra’s UP North line to the downtown Milwaukee station that is the northern terminal for Amtrak’s Hiawathas. The city of Kenosha passed a resolution in favor of the project in January [see “Kenosha, Wis., council to consider resolution …,” Trains News Wire,” Jan. 16, 2024].
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