$16 million for Milwaukee Amtrak station doesn't buy accessibility

The ADA has been with us for over a decade. Consequently, there's a kind of headline you shouldn't ever read or hear anymore. A headline that says something like: "New public building project doesn't include  accessibility."
Unfortunately, the latest example of that kind of headline is coming out of Milwaukee.
This good piece of reporting by the Milwaukee Fox TV affiliate WITI, relates how despite an almost $16 million renovation to the downtown Milwaukee Amtrak station, actually boarding a train for someone with a disability is no easier than before the work was completed. That's because the train floor area was untouched by the rehab. To get on, riders need to be raised on a portable lift cranked by an attendant, a less than independent type solution.
Frankly from this footage, the argument for a better arrangement should be pretty easy to make. Even completely able-bodied people are asked to step on a portable step stool and then into the train. Those are industrial strength looking step stools, but still that's an accident waiting to happen.
There is some hint that the problem may be relatively short-term. The station's exemption from having trains be accessible by a level entrance expires in 2010, according to the story. Officials are waiting to be told what standards they need to adhere.
Bureaucratic poppycock. There are two kinds of trains that use the station. My advice: Find a way to make the platform level at some point, perhaps by a ramp, with entrances to the two trains.
I'm thinking many of the readers here could have found some funds in this project's budget that could have been diverted to this key issue.
After all, what good is a renovated station if you can't even get on the train?

Photo of Amtrak trains in Washington DC by Michelle Kwajafa via morgueFile.com.