Kain said he hadn't been to Madison in 20 years and knew little about the city. But he maintained that in cities such as Madison, where the population is relatively small and not very dense, rail systems aren't practical. Kain said too many urban planners think the solution to transit problems is to build bigger and fancier transit systems. In reality, he said, rail systems don't increase ridership and in some cases may decrease it. The money could be used on local schools, to fix the potholes, on more police protec- tion or in the case of transit on the bus system.
Rail systems are very inflexible and many times are very slow.
Often when a community invests in a rail system, they reroute buses to serve the system instead of serving riders, to justify the cost of rail. It may appear that ridership is up but that is because more people are making transfers to get to their destinations. Still, Kennedy believes that, a rail system is the solution to Madison's transportation woes. What we are left with is a rail corridor right through the Isthmus that is the only unused transportation route.