A $22 million, 18-month project to rebuild the train passenger concourse at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station is now complete, state Department of Transportation and city officials announced Wednesday.
The project redesigned and rebuilt the train passenger concourse, the station’s enclosed boarding area for its five tracks. The structure is now 121 feet wide, 400 feet long and 56 feet tall with architecture similar to the Intermodal Station’s design, which the city completed in 2007 at a cost of $17 million.
The train passenger concourse now includes a five-track mezzanine covered by a roof with skylights.
“The new concourse provides a bright and welcoming space for all passengers and a new front door to Milwaukee,” said Mae Knowles, spokesperson for the Department of Transportation.
Train schedules will remain the same with Amtrak Hiawatha Service between Milwaukee and Chicago and Amtrak Empire Builder offering service between Milwaukee, Chicago, La Crosse and the Twin Cities.
With escalators, elevators, raised boarding platforms, bright lighting and advanced hearing technology, the new structure meets the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards, making the station accessible to everyone.
Copper tubing technology and the structure’s full overhead enclosure allow passengers with hearing aids to better hear announcements from anywhere in the station, according to WisDOT. According to Knowles, this feature differentiates the Milwaukee Intermodal Station from other train stations that allow passengers with hearing aids to hear announcements from only a designated area within the station.
Reconstructing the train passenger concourse is another step in WisDOT’s effort to make train travel more attractive, Knowles said.
Recent service improvements include a bicycle checking service, extended hours, small pet allowance and kids riding free on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this summer.
