Madison Station (Milwaukee Road)
Passenger operations
In 1953 the station mainly served On Wisconsin and other trains east on a route to Watertown, Milwaukee and then to Chicago. Additionally, the timetables showed these named trains that took at direct path to Chicago, through Janesville:
- Sioux (a Chicago-Rapid City, SD night train)
- Varsity (a Chicago-Madison train; it left Madison in the morning and returned from Chicago in the evening)
Eclipse of service
Rail service in Madison was terminated in 1971 when the Milwaukee Road opted to end all of its passenger operations. Only the main line between Chicago and Minneapolis had intercity rail after 1971.
Current usage
The depot is now used as a shopping center; including a bicycle shop, a café, and a restaurant. MILW 35A, an EMD E8A locomotive, sits on static display outside of the depot along with several Milwaukee Road, New York Central Railroad, and Metropolitan Transportation Authority passenger cars. A single-tracked line operated by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad remains in front of the depot.
The depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and on the State Register of Historic Places in 1989.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/West_Madison_Depot.jpg/220px-West_Madison_Depot.jpg)