Aboard Amtrak’s Hiawatha service, quiet conversations complement the rumble of steel wheels maneuvering along the tracks.

A fresh layer of snow covers the ground while the train pulls away from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, unraveling its cars from one Midwestern city toward another.

En route to Chicago Union Station, passengers ride along an Amtrak system forged by the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, which sought to revitalize American train travel. In approving the law, Congress declared that “modern, efficient, intercity railroad passenger service is a necessary part of a balanced transportation system.” 

Wisconsin operates three Amtrak routes: the Hiawatha, which runs a round-trip corridor service seven times daily between Chicago and Milwaukee; the Empire Builder, running one long-distance round trip each day between Chicago and Seattle or Portland; and the Borealis, a route added last May that runs one daily round trip between St. Paul, Milwaukee and Chicago.

In 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed into law the  $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which awarded $2.1 billion to Amtrak and its partners — the largest federal investment in public transit in history. 

Wisconsin residents haven’t yet fully experienced the law’s effects, but plans are well underway. The law awarded the Wisconsin Department of Transportation four $500,000 grants through a federal Corridor Identification and Development Program. 

These grants are funding research for a range of potential new services. Those include a proposed corridor connecting Milwaukee to Minneapolis through Madison and Eau Claire; an additional daily round trip between Chicago and St. Paul via La Crosse to complement the Empire Builder; and making the Hiawatha more frequent and extending its service to Green Bay.

In late December, I rode a sold-out Hiawatha train from Milwaukee to Chicago. The route is Amtrak’s busiest in the Midwest and the nation’s seventh-busiest. 

I returned in early January, talking to passengers along the way for our latest edition of Public Square, a series highlighting how Wisconsin residents connect with their communities. I gathered a variety of perspectives about how people use passenger trains and on efforts to make them more accessible.

I heard from a range of people, including a Milwaukee college student riding home to Chicago and a trucker stranded on the first leg of a cross-country journey home for the holidays. All opted for the train instead of a car.

Amanda Simms, who works for a long-haul trucking company in Allenton, Wisconsin, didn’t initially plan to take Amtrak to see her family in Philadelphia over the holidays. But an eyesight issue prompted the 28-year-old to abandon her plans to make the 14-hour drive. Booking a flight wouldn’t have worked, due to high cost and baggage limits. 

So she pivoted to rail. Simms felt positive in the early stage of her three-train, 20-plus-hour Amtrak experience. 

“All the peace that you see, it’s quiet — it’s something different,” Simms said. “When I’m riding the train in the city, you see all the buildings and stuff, but to see it from this aspect it’s different. I’ll take this any day.”

Sitting quietly alone a few rows away, Teni Fajemisin, 18, watched through the window as the train passed a blur of snow-covered trees. The Chicago native was heading home after finishing his first semester of a two-year program at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, where he said he has “met nice people” and contributes to a project that aims to build a new community center in Milwaukee’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood.

Fajemisin said riding the 90-minute Hiawatha route made the most sense since his dad works near Chicago Union Station.

While riding the Hiawatha back to Milwaukee a few weeks later, I spoke with Phillip Loan, who was riding in a business class seat, which offers extra legroom and footrests for a higher place. The 27-year–old Atlanta native was en route to a job interview at a Milwaukee hospital — hoping to become a Wisconsin resident. 

Loan said Amtrak offered the cheapest option, and he said he’d consider riding again, particularly if the system improves the convenience and quality of the service. He mentioned the attractiveness of high-speed services in other countries, recounting an “awesome” experience riding between major cities while visiting Japan.

Research for an expansion in Wisconsin continues. Its prospects depend on the success of the Muskego Yard Freight Rail Bypass project, which would open up the shared tracks for Amtrak’s passenger trains to function more efficiently, state DOT Rail Chief Lisa Stern told WPR in October. 

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin last year announced a fresh $72.8 million in federal funding for the bypass project, with plans to begin construction in 2026. 

While the feasibility of expansion to cities like Madison, Green Bay and Eau Claire continues to be researched, the state DOT says it’s working to execute the grant agreement for the bypass project — aiming to make train travel in Wisconsin more accessible for riders like those I met.

Ditching cars for rail, Wisconsin Amtrak passengers find accessibility is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Green-blue waves crashed against the rocks on a partly cloudy day last August. The white sails of a passing boat flapped in the wind. The wrecked Hetty Taylor schooner remained sunken beneath these Lake Michigan waters. 

And at the base of the Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse, Robert Devroy III cast his line. 

Fishing and hunting are two of Devroy’s favorite things about Wisconsin, where there’s “never a dull moment,” he said. He and his family highly value the outdoor recreation Wisconsin has to offer, whether dirt bike races or long days by the lake. 

Born and raised in Green Bay, Devroy, a Marine Corps veteran, works days as a maintenance technician at Salm Partners, a sausage and hot dog manufacturer in Denmark, Wis. He works occasional nights as a stagehand at Green Bay’s Epic Event Center, where he enjoys attending concerts. That explained the Eric Church T-shirt he sported while waiting for a gullible walleye or muskie to take his bait.

His other job is at home, parenting two daughters and two sons. He’s also attending a technical college. But Devroy’s life hasn’t always been so balanced.

As the Edgewater Generating Station’s smokestacks reflected in his blue sunglasses, he spoke about how “some really hard times” shaped who he is today. That included spending five years in prison for “something stupid.”

“I knew I needed to change, to not continue to go down that path and continue to hurt the people that were around me and that I loved,” Devroy said. “My wife is a big key in where I’m at today, to drive me to be the man that I want to be.” 

She was always there when he left prison, and he realized he needed to do more to take care of his young family.

“If I would’ve continued going down that path that I was living in, that would have never happened,” Devroy said. “I would have been in and out of prison and not going anywhere, not being a successful person in our society.”

But now? “The sky’s the limit,” Devroy said.

Devroy said he’s proud of his career — working on with electrical and mechanical issues, which he entered after embarking on a non-traditional journey. 

He didn’t initially graduate from high school but ultimately gained his high school equivalency degree. Devroy is now in his third year of a maintenance technician program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, which includes apprenticeship opportunities. After working on industrial equipment much of his life, he said the program helped him grow into his current position as maintenance supervisor at Salm, where he has worked for a decade. 

“There’s a new challenge every day,” he said. “This path I’ve chosen, it’s endless.” 

Balancing school with two jobs and family duties isn’t always easy, but he’s excited to contemplate his future. Perhaps he’ll even pursue a master’s degree as a journeyman maintenance technician, he said. But for the moment, he was focused on hooking “anything that wants to eat a worm.” 

“When I find time to myself, this is what I do right here,” Devroy said, gazing out at the lake. “Listen to music and enjoy Mother Nature.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Robert Devroy III discovers fulfillment in work and family is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

As rays of setting sun striped the hill at Madison’s James Madison Park, Arthur Kohl-Riggs practiced handstands on his favorite tree. 

“I never really planned on handstanding but it’s proven very meditative,” he said. 

Kohl-Riggs, 36, a native of Madison’s west side, said he initially started exercising at the park to regain strength in his shoulder following an injury. Now it’s his “third space” — a familiar spot to connect with others. 

“The idea of being a regular at a park is nice,” he said. “There’s no cost, you don’t have to buy a drink an hour, it’s just a free space to be.” 

As fellow park-goers walked by, some stopped to watch as Kohl-Riggs wrapped his hands around the old oak’s branch, brought his feet near his hands, hooked the branch with his feet, then dropped his arms to the ground, dangling upside down.

“I’ve been trying to find ways to reintegrate intentionally into the community,” Kohl-Riggs said.

Routines developed earlier in the pandemic kept him cooped inside for months at a time, he said. But now, between using his friend’s laundry machine in exchange for handyman work and attending karaoke nights at the Gamma Ray Bar just off the Capitol Square, Kohl-Riggs said he’s forcing himself into community — resisting the forces of complacency to avoid reisolation.

Kohl-Riggs has lived eclectically.

As an activist and citizen journalist in 2012, he ran a protest campaign against Scott Walker in the Republican primary for governor, touting the values of Republicans like Robert La Follette and Abraham Lincoln and growing a Lincoln-like beard. He received nearly 20,000 votes, 3% of the tally, despite spending less than $2,000. Over the next five years, he and a friend produced a tongue-in-cheek YouTube travel series about Dane County called Dane & Dash. He said he now works as a legal investigator for a private law firm that works on public defense overflow cases, helping to “ease the congested public defender rolls,” he said.

Kohl-Riggs said he feels optimistic about the state’s future, despite a range of challenges people face — from housing and financial instability to a lack of health care.  

“Despair only hinders progress,” he said. “We’re more capable now than we were before of seeing more of the faults in a lot of the systems that have always existed. It’s harder to be complacent when everything’s obviously not working how it’s supposed to work.” 

“People are motivated to make their communities better and to protect from potential threats to the people in their communities and around them,” Kohl-Riggs added. “That energy is contagious… we can build strong, resilient local strategies to combat national threats.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Arthur Kohl-Riggs finds comfort in Madison’s ‘third spaces’ is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Today we’re launching Public Square, an occasional photography series introducing your neighbors from across Wisconsin. 

The project aims to highlight the roles people play in their communities throughout the state. In one story, we might profile residents finding solutions to issues facing their cities and towns. In another, we may share someone’s unique perspective on where they fit into their community. 

Throughout the project, we’ll ask people the same questions and make photographs in a similar style — taking something of an informal visual census of the state. We’ll ask:

• What do you love about Wisconsin, and what might you want to fix? 
• What issues do you care about, and how do they impact your life? 
• Where do you find community, and how do you feel about the future? 

Finally, we’ll ask who else we should talk to and where we should next travel so our project can continue fostering connections across the state. At Wisconsin Watch, we want to do more than tell stories of people facing challenges. We want to share your everyday moments of joy, reflection and curiosity. It’s what makes this state great.

Meet your first neighbor here: Arthur Kohl-Riggs, an optimistic practitioner of handstands who works as a legal investigator and once earned thousands of votes as a protest candidate for governor. 

If you know of anyone in your community who we should feature in this visual project, please email me at jtimmerman@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Public Square: Portraits of your neighbors from across Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.