Imagine you live in Tomah, and you’re planning a flight to Atlanta.

Existing arrangements might require that you drive to Madison, take a connecting flight to Chicago, and then take another plane to Atlanta.

Now, imagine an alternative. You take a high-speed rail car from Tomah to Chicago and then catch a direct flight to Atlanta. It would revolutionize transportation, and it would make high-speed rail more than just green-jobs curiosity.

Wisconsin won $810 million in federal stimulus money to construct a passenger rail line between Madison and Milwaukee. The train will average 79 miles per hour and include stops in Watertown, Oconomowoc and Brookfield. It’s possible that service will eventually extend north from Madison to Minneapolis along the existing Amtrak line (high-speed rail already connects Milwaukee and Chicago).

Skeptics are already questioning whether many people would take the Madison-Milwaukee train, and as long as it’s touted as nothing more than an alternative to driving I-94, they’re right. But if high-speed rail is integrated into the nation’s air transport system, then it’s a totally different story. People regularly take connecting flights from Madison and La Crosse to Chicago and Minneapolis. Why not replace those air-clogging connecting flights with high-speed rail and bundle them together into one ticket?

The prospect of rail-air linkage makes the choice of the Madison rail station critically important. The Dane County Regional Airport is the only logical location. If the rail line is established downtown, the route will only appeal to a tiny group of commuters.

It’s an astonishing waste of time and energy to put 100 people on an airplane and transport them 150 miles. High-speed rail can do the job cheaper, faster and cleaner, but its transformation into something more than a boutique travel option requires long-range planning and leaders with the courage to think big.