A new effort to connect Milwaukee to Racine and Kenosha by train would take the “commuter” out of commuter rail and keep going all the way to Chicago.

The seemingly defunct KRM plan has been resurrected with a new name, a new approach and a new governing structure, borrowing from the playbook that western Wisconsin rail advocates are using to push for passenger trains linking Eau Claire to the Twin Cities.

Before it was dismantled by the Republican-led Legislature, the former Southeastern Regional Transit Authority was planning the KRM (for Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee) route as a commuter rail line from Kenosha to Racine and downtown Milwaukee, with stops in five other communities and on Milwaukee’s south side. Passengers would have been able to transfer to the Chicago area’s Metra commuter trains at Kenosha, now the northernmost Metra station.

By contrast, the new MARK Rail Commission is focusing on an intercity passenger rail line with downtown stations in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Chicago. Other stops in Wisconsin or Illinois might be considered as well, said Milwaukee Ald. Bob Bauman, the commission’s secretary-treasurer.

While commuter rail systems like Metra can serve numerous communities and neighborhoods within a metropolitan area, intercity rail lines like Amtrak’s Chicago-to-Milwaukee Hiawatha stop at fewer stations and travel longer distances at higher speeds. Between downtown Milwaukee and downtown Chicago, the Hiawatha stops at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport, Sturtevant and Glenview, Illinois, bypassing Racine and Kenosha.

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