An agreement between two railroads could divert traffic away from Janesville, but new developments in other parts of Wisconsin could eventually bring more trains to the city.
The Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway have struck a deal for trackage rights from North Milwaukee to Rondout, Ill., and the connection with Metra-owned trackage into Chicago.
The rights would give WSOR trains a short cut from Horicon to Chicago. Currently, those grain trains typically travel to Janesville and then east to Rondout. The trackage rights would allow the trains to head directly from Horicon into Milwaukee, and then to Rondout on CP rails, said Ken Lucht, a WSOR spokesman.
WSOR currently has trackage rights over the Metra lines from Rondout into Chicago.
"It would certainly alleviate some of the bottlenecks we see at our Pearl Street operation in Janesville," Lucht said, adding that the agreement with CP would give WSOR a secondary route for rail shipments from the Horicon and northeast Wisconsin markets.
"Even though Janesville will lose cars due to the diversion of some grain trains, our business is growing, and Janesville is a very critical part of our system," Lucht said.
It's possible the loss in grain shipments through Janesville could be made up with future shipments of ethanol from plants planned for construction west of Madison.
The former Milwaukee Road line from Madison to Prairie du Chien, which generally sees a train once a week, will soon have three ethanol plants and a train to service them every day. WSOR President Bill Gardner has said the railroad is in negotiations with Canadian National and Union Pacific to take over several line segments.
"At this point, we just don't know what it will mean for Janesville," Lucht said. "It all depends on where the ethanol is sold. We can't say that it will all come through Janesville."
Ethanol destined for western markets, he said, would not come through Janesville.
The railroad is also pursuing other possibilities in southwestern Wisconsin. That could include opening the rail line west of Monroe in order to stretch service to Shullsburg and Mineral Point.
Mineral Point officials, however, have indicated they have no interest in rail service to their community, Lucht said.
Shullsburg officials, on the other hand, are interested in rail service that would tie into a business and highway development on the community's east side, he said.
"We have two or three investors who are very interested in southwest Wisconsin if they can get rail service," Lucht said. "We've been working with officials in Rock, Green, Lafayette and Iowa counties to provide rail service to a number of communities that have been without it for years."
Lucht said system traffic is growing and the railroad continues to work with state officials on funding for track upgrades.
"We're trying our best to keep up with all of it," he said.
