Ridership on the Amtrak Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago rose 4.5% in Amtrak’s 2024 fiscal year to 665,279, according to the federal passenger railroad operation’s annual report.
However, ridership on the Hiawatha, which has stops at downtown Milwaukee, Mitchell International Airport and in Sturtevant, remains 24.6% below its pre-pandemic peak of 882,189 in 2019.
Amtrak Hiawatha currently offers seven roundtrips daily between Milwaukee and Chicago. Amtrak plans to add an eighth daily roundtrip to the Hiawatha service after improvement projects are completed, including the Muskego Yard Bypass project, which will allow freight trains to bypass the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, and the addition of a second platform at the Milwaukee Airport Rail Station. The federal government this year awarded a $72.8 million grant for the $91 million Muskego Yard Bypass project. The $17.2 million platform project at the airport station is under construction.
Amtrak reported record ridership for its 2024 fiscal year (from October of 2023 through September of 2024) of 32.8 million passengers.
The new Borealis line, which launched on May 21 and runs from the Twin Cities through Wisconsin to Chicago, had 88,444 passengers during Amtrak’s 2024 fiscal year.
The Empire Builder line, which runs from Chicago through Wisconsin to Seattle, had a ridership increase of 11.2% for a total of 387,953.
