I've never been up that way, so I'm guessing:
Empire Builder - Superliners - low level boarding
Everything else - low level boarding or high level boarding
Is that right? If that's true, why don't they just leave the platforms low and use the portable lift?
The problem is that the Hiawatha service will continue to use the Horizon coach cars which are high level. The Talgo trainsets and the corridor bi-level cars are low level. So the high level platform is being built for an aging set of equipment which will someday be replaced in all likelihood by low level corridor bi-level cars.
If it had not been for the poorly considered Talgo order, WI would not have sunk money into the Talgos and Gov. Walker, despite campaigning to kill the Madison extension, might have had WI join in with IL, MI, MO to get the corridor bi-level cars for the Hiawatha service. But he didn't, so the level boarding requirement enacted by US DOT in September 2011, is an issue that the station project has to contend with.
Amtrak has posted a series of reports to Congress on how it is dealing with the level boarding requirement and the exceptions to the rule for stations across the system. Those reports are available on the website under reports and documents. In the east, the result will be upgrades or new stations to high level platforms or mini-high platforms, depending on the station and circumstances. Not just on the NEC, but the eastern Keystone, New Haven to Greenfield, many upper NY state stations, and stations south of WAS where the platform is on pull-over tracks or where a mini-high is suitable.
What could happen in WI is that the station is built with a high-level platform. Then in a few years, either under a new Governor or maybe under Gov. Walker once the Talgo issue blows over, WI joins the IL, MI, MO consortium and orders enough bi-levels from Nippon-Sharyo to support the Hiawatha service. Then the Hiawatha service is equipped with the new bi-levels, the high level platform then becomes useless and will cost money to be removed. Not the best use of public funds.