Dane County officials have been talking about commuter rail for decades, and in the last few years a proposal for a $250 million line between Middleton and Sun Prairie with a $10 million annual operating cost has been developed.
When the local proposal was submitted for federal funding in 2008, the Federal Transit Administration said it needed a local funding source to be viable. That prompted the state last year to authorize the creation of the Dane County RTA with the power to raise up to a half-cent sales tax, which would generate about $40 million a year.