March 28 in Madison

The Wisconsin Transit Riders Alliance will hold its annual meeting on Thursday, March 28 from 11 am to 1 pm at the Madison Public Library, Central Branch, 401 West Mufflin Street. Guest speaker will be Rep. Debra Kolste (D-Janesville), ranking minority leader on the Assembly Transportation Committee. This is a great opportunity for transit riders and advocates from around the state to network, share ideas, and plan future actions. WTRA will officially unveil its updated platform at this meeting. The meeting is free and open to the public.

All LATA MEMBERS ARE MEMBERS OF WTRA.

Now for the reality of life in a state that has not valued public transportation for decades.

You cannot get to Madison for a midday meeting and back to La Crosse in a single day using public transportation. Our regional public transportarion system is a pitiful cruel joke. If you want to use public transit for this meeting, you will have to go a day early and stay overnight in Madison.

The Jefferson Line daily bus from La Crosse to the UW Madison campus leaves at about 3 pm and arrives in Madison at about 6 pm. But coming back, if you want to take the bus, you'll have to stay overnight again because the one bus per day from Madison to La Crosse leaves at about 10:30 am.

You may take Amtrak from La Crosse to Madison, but you will need to go to Milwaukee or Chicago and transfer to a bus that will take you back to Madison and, again, you'll need to go a day early because you'll end up in Madison well after the 11 am meeting start time. Just pitiful.

The "best" public transportation option is to go a day early on Jefferson Lines, stay overnight in Madison (there is a hostel in the downtown area) and return through a booking on Amtrak which will include a bus trip that leaves UW Madison about 2:10 pm to Columbus, WI, a two hour layover there, then a transfer to Amtrak which gets to La Crosse at about 7:15 pm. The timing for other return options (SMRT bus to Tomah, Greyhound to Madison, for example, do not work at all) and would require a second overnight stay.

We may be able to connect a few people to car pool. Please email cvmaren@mwt.net by March 20 if you are interested. Please note if you can drive and how many spaces you have available OR if you need a ride. Plan to bring a bag lunch for yourself.

For more details, visit  https://www.witransitriders.org/annual-meetings

The Wisconsin Transit Riders Alliance is a growing statewide federation of transit riders and supporters working to improve transit across Wisconsin. Join us as we help bring Wisconsin’s transportation system into the 21st Century.

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On a somewhat related issue, WisARP, the Wisconsin Association of Rail Passengers, has recently announced that the Rail Passengers Association (formerly the National Assoc. of RR Passengers) has produced a report on the impact of a second frequency on the Chicago - Twin Cities Amtrak route. 

The second frequency will be one of the main topics for review and discussion at the WisARP Spring Meeting which will be Martch 30th in Portage.  Registration information will be available soon.