Cudahy may be on track for a station in the latest passenger rail proposal, leaving other South Shore suburbs to watch as the train passes them by.
The community is joining Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha in planning the MARK (Milwaukee Area-Racine-Kenosha) Rail line, a streamlined version of the former KRM (Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee) concept.
Before it was derailed by the Republican-led Legislature in 2011, KRM was envisioned as a commuter rail line with nine stations – including Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek and a south side Milwaukee stop in Bay View or Walker’s Point – and transfers to Chicago’s Metra commuter trains at Kenosha. But MARK would be an intercity route, similar to Amtrak’s Hiawatha service, running from Downtown Milwaukee to downtown Chicago with few stops in between.
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At the MARK Rail Commission’s first meeting in December, officials spoke only of Racine and Kenosha as intermediate stops. However, Cudahy Mayor Ken Jankowski says they later contacted his city to discuss a potential station there to serve Mitchell International Airport.
Cudahy’s Common Council voted Jan. 20 to join the commission, which accepted the suburb as its fourth member city on March 2.
The KRM plan suggested shuttle buses linking the Cudahy station to Mitchell. And when Racine kicked off the current study, it listed improved passenger rail access to the airport among its goals.
Jankowski says a Cudahy station also could stimulate development and population growth, leading to a “really vibrant” downtown.
“If it ever comes to fruition, it’s going to be a game changer,” Jankowski says.
A 2006 document from the original KRM plan says the city not only incorporated a possible station into its downtown plan but “has purchased land for the construction of a station and commuter parking lot” adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad Co. tracks and south of East Layton Avenue.
Jankowski says he’s not aware of that purchase, and a station site isn’t in the city’s latest master plan. However, his preferred site would be in the same vicinity, northeast of the corner of Sweet Applewood Lane and East Barnard Avenue. That would be near Smithfield Foods’ Patrick Cudahy meatpacking plant and Applewood Terrace, a proposed 264-townhome development on city-owned land.
The historic Cudahy Depot is north of that area, at 4647 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. It hasn’t been used by passenger trains since the 1950s and is now the home of the Cudahy Historical Society, which is raising money to renovate it.
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Cudahy’s potential airport connection gives it an advantage over South Milwaukee, where Mayor Jim Shelenske says a station could draw visitors to downtown shops and restaurants, as well as attracting “employers looking for locations with dependable transit options for their workforce—boosting local businesses, attracting new investment, and creating jobs.”
The KRM plan suggested a site across the Union Pacific tracks from the historic South Milwaukee Railroad Depot, 1111 Milwaukee Ave., which has been renovated to house Benkowski Builders. That also would be Shelenske’s preferred site for a station, on city-owned land near 12th and Milwaukee Avenues.
Shelenske says a South Milwaukee station could serve residents of other southern suburbs, who “would gain seamless access to jobs, schools and services throughout the region.”
That would be similar to the role now played by Amtrak’s airport station, which is heavily used by South Siders and south suburbanites who prefer not to drive to Downtown’s Milwaukee Intermodal Station. Shelenske conceded a Cudahy station also could provide such benefits to its south suburban neighbors.
The Milwaukee Airport Railroad Station is one of the Midwest’s 10 busiest Amtrak depots. However, Mitchell officials say few of its passengers use free shuttles to the airport terminal, because the schedules for the Chicago-to-Milwaukee Hiawatha and Chicago-to-St. Paul Borealis don’t line up with the airport’s peak arrival and departure periods. It’s too early to say if or how the MARK Rail schedule would differ.
Other potential stations that were in the KRM plan but aren’t currently in the MARK plan are:
- Oak Creek, in the Lakeview Village neighborhood, near South Fifth Avenue and East Ryan Road. Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz didn’t respond to a request for comment.
- Milwaukee neighborhoods. The KRM study suggested a South Side station at the northern end of Bay View, near South Bay Street and East Lincoln Avenue, just south of the Port of Milwaukee. But various local politicians also pressed for a Walker’s Point station on either East Greenfield Avenue or East National Avenue, as well as an eventual extension to the North Side via the 30th Street rail corridor. In 2018, the city obtained an option to buy a Greenfield Avenue site in the Harbor District, but that option expired unsigned in 2023.
- Caledonia, in Racine County, and Somers, in Kenosha County.
Except for Cudahy, all of the MARK Rail stations would be in existing buildings, including three current train stations: the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, the Kenosha Metra station and Metra’s Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago’s West Loop.
The Racine stop would be at the Reid-Owens Transit Center, which renovated the city’s historic State Street depot to accommodate future regional trains, as well as local RYDE buses and Wisconsin Coach Lines intercity buses to Milwaukee and Kenosha.
In addition to the Wisconsin stations, Milwaukee Ald. Robert Bauman supports at least one stop in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs, particularly Evanston. That’s the home of Northwestern University, which could be a draw for students, alumni and college sports fans from Wisconsin, says Bauman, a MARK Rail Commission member who holds a law degree from Northwestern.
Metra has three stations in Evanston. The Central Street station is within walking distance of both Northwestern’s Ryan Field football stadium (currently being rebuilt) and its Wells-Ryan Arena, where the basketball team plays, Bauman notes.
By comparison, the Hiawatha stops at Glenview, Illinois, and Sturtevant, in addition to Milwaukee’s Downtown and airport stations and Chicago’s Union Station. The Borealis stops at the same stations before continuing to the Twin Cities.
Depending on funding and support, the MARK Rail planning process could take another five years, with construction potentially beginning in 2031, consultants told the commission.
Editor’s note: This article is part of our April 2026 issue.
