NOvA Collaboration Meeting

Travel to/around Madison

Getting to Madison

1. Fly to Madison (MSN) directly

2. Fly to Chicago ORD and take the bus. Use the 250 N. Lake St stop in Madison (Campus)

3. Fly to Chicago ORD and rent a car

4. Drive to Madison

Advice for International Travelers

For those traveling from origins outside the US, you may be asking how to be best prepared when entering the US through US Customs and Border Protections (CBP). We would like to suggest the following information that may be helpful. 

Items to have with you, preferably on paper – 

1. Copy of your travel itinerary
2. Copy of your hotel reservation
3. Copy of your invitation letter to the meeting 
4. Copy of the meeting agenda
5. Copy of meeting registration (from the indico page or email confirmation)
6. If possible, a letter from your institution verifying your employment and endorsing the business travel 

Please remember to tell the immigration officer you are here on business. You are not a tourist. You will also need this to be marked correctly for entry into Fermilab. 

Additional information:

You should check your country of residence on the current travel advisories.   

Embassy Information:

https://www.usembassy.gov/

Should you be questioned or detained, you can contact  Brian Rebel at (608) 262 - 3989. Please use for emergency only. 

Getting Around Madison

Directions to Chamberlin Hall

Walking

Chamberlin is walkable from Embassy Suites. Google Maps says this walk is around 30 minutes. There are many cafes, some with breakfast options, on State St along the way. 

 

Busses

Madison also has lots of buses running from Capitol Square to campus, which take around 15 minutes. 

Routes:

 

• A/F- these are the new rapid transit buses (BRT). You catch them at the station in front of the post office at 2 E Mifflin St. The stop outside Subway will take you the wrong way. The B is another rapid transit bus that runs from the square to campus. It doesn't go all the way to Chamberlin, but the walk to Chamberlin from the B stop is about 5 or 10 minutes.
• Non-BRT bus options to campus are C, D, R, 28, and 38.The D and the 28 stops are a bit farther from the hotel than other stops. There has been construction in the area of the C and the 38 stops, so check the Metro Transit website (https://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/detours/2025-04-02/routes-c-and-38) for the most up-to-date stop locations and leave some extra time in case the bus stop is not where you are expecting.

 

Schedules:The Metro Transit website has each route listed here (https://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/routes-schedules); click on a route to see the time table.There is also a live bus tracker here (https://metromap.cityofmadison.com/map?selector=tripplanner). I just enter my destination on Google Maps to see when the next bus is coming. I have found this reliable, but some of my friends prefer CityMapper over Google Maps.Payment:Fare is 2 dollars a ride, but it gets capped at 5 dollars a day. You can pay with a QR code from a phone app (no tap-to-pay yet), or buy tickets from a kiosk at a BRT station. You can pay exact cash fare on non-BRT buses, but not BRT buses. See more information here (https://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/fares). If you have questions that aren't answered on the website, I have found that calling Metro Transit directly is helpful.