Passenger Trains > public transportation in Wisconsin

Some guys decide to put together a public transportation guide for Wisconsin and find out that it is even more dismal than they imagined:

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/181797

I would guess that Wisconsin is typical of most states.

Things have really backslid in WI since the recent Greyhound cuts; the 'hound used to have decent service in the Northwoods. I used to be able to take Amtrak to Milwaukee and bus it the rest of the way to Rhinelander, where family would pick me up. At least Midwest Connect has entered the air market. But it's still Essential Air Service, Beech 1900s flown with high fares and little competition.

The low population density and typical rural economic hardships through much of the state of course do not help the situation.

But they still have that overnight Dog to Mackinac and St Ignace ?

I lived in Milwaukee and Madison in the early 1980s and used public transportation in both of those cities extensively. I felt Milwaukee County Transit was one of the most reliable public transit systems I've ever used. Madison Metro was pretty good, too, but because it served a smaller community, its service was less extensive than Milwaukee's.

My experiences with Badger Bus which only runs between Milwaukee and Madison, were always positive.

There was a bus which ran between O'Hare Airport and Madison, the Van Galder service (It now operates [under a different name] to Chicago Union Station). I don't remember having any problems with this service.

I had an interesting experience on a Green Bay to Madison trip. According to the timetable, I should have been able to connect in Milwaukee for another bus to Madison. However, by the time the bus from Green Bay arrived in Milwaukee late at night, there were no more buses to Madison. The woman who was sitting next to me on the bus offered to put me up for the night, but when her husband arrived at the bsu terminal, he was furious with her for offering to take in a stranger. I understood where he was coming from. I can't remember how or when I finally got back to Madison, but it was all part of life as a college student! :)

Dave

The reason Greyhound no longer operates many of those routes is less people rode on those routes, they became unprofitable and Greyhound discontinued them because they want to stay in business. In Michigan the state government used to subsidize unprofitable bus routes but with the "budget crises" most of the funding has been lost. Charters carrying retired people seems to be the new business model.