neroden
Engineer
Politically, the problem is kind of weird. It has to do with the current political control of Wisconsin by very bad people, including Governor Walker. They are elected with core support from the Milwaukee suburbs. They have an unreasoning hatred of Milwaukee, though they probably hate Madison even more. (They hate the rural areas too; strip mining is their plan for rural areas.)I would argue, however, that hourly service to Milwaukee should be, at least partially, under the aegis of Metra, extending their service from Kenosha the rest of the way north which would create a lot of additional commuting options. If that were a success then additional "express" trains could be added.
Obviously any Metra extension from Kenosha to Milwaukee would require state support; the city of Milwaukee doesn't have the money. So until the state of Wisconsin is removed from the control of these... people... the state government will not do anything good in Wisconsin.
So anything being proposed should be for the 2018 campaign platform.