City planners presented a final draft of the Madison passenger rail station study and identified the Monona lakefront area as the preferred site for a potential passenger‑rail station, while designating the Johnson Street yard as a secondary option.

Transportation planner Liz Callan told the Commission the study frames the city’s recommended station areas as preliminary and subject to WisDOT's Corridor ID and subsequent service‑development planning. "The last passenger train left Madison in 1971," Callan said to emphasize the city's long absence of passenger rail; staff outlined a phased approach tied to state and federal processes.

Study assumptions and goals: the report assumes an initial service concept of roughly three to four daily round trips, 700‑foot platforms to serve Siemens Venture trainsets, and modest station facilities (roughly 3,000–5,000 square feet) located to maximize multimodal access and convenience for visitors and residents. Callan said the recommended downtown/Monona lakefront area offers the best access to hotels, visitor destinations and jobs within walking distance, as well as strong multimodal connections to BRT and local bus routes.

Funding and next steps: staff characterized the Corridor ID program as the federal funding pipeline that WisDOT is using to advance corridor studies; Callan and other staff said step 2 (service development planning) will require non‑federal local matches (generally a state match for the state's portion of the application). "So the state, that that is a funding match for the state," Callan said when asked whether the local match is a municipal or state responsibility. The city report will be finalized with commissioner feedback and shared with WisDOT and Amtrak as the corridor moves to the next phase.

Operational considerations discussed included potential train servicing needs (a nearby storage/servicing site or off‑site facilities), platform length and alignment, and tradeoffs among alternative sites (airport and Oscar Mayer areas were dismissed as less convenient for arriving passengers). Commissioners asked about timeline, ridership assumptions and local circulation; staff said the 3–4 round‑trip assumption is provisional and will be refined in service development planning.

What happens next: the study will be finalized and posted, and the Corridor ID/service development planning led by WisDOT and Amtrak will further refine station design and funding. Staff do not expect the city to take formal action on the report now; rather, recommended station areas will feed into the state‑led process and future city coordination.