Transit Plans Face Stops and Starts: Commuter Trains, Buses, Streetcars All Being Considered

By Larry Sandler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sep. 9–Despite political obstacles, a Milwaukee-area commuter train plan is moving forward to seek federal funding.

But similar problems will force a Madison-area commuter rail plan to wait out the next round of federal funding decisions.

Meanwhile, a separate Milwaukee study panel has agreed to consider Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s express bus ideas along with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s plan for both express buses and streetcars.

All three transit efforts are proceeding amid debate over the future of public transit in Wisconsin. The combination of new transit plans and financial woes at existing bus systems, such as the Milwaukee County Transit System, has spurred consideration of regional transit authorities and new local taxes.

In the Milwaukee area, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority is planning the KRM Commuter Link, a $200 million rail line that would connect downtown Milwaukee to the south side, the southern suburbs, Racine and Kenosha. The trains would run 14 round trips daily and would link to Chicago’s Metra trains.

Planners are counting on the Federal Transit Administration’s “new starts” program to pick up half the construction cost, or $100 million, with other state and federal money accounting for roughly another $60 million.

An application for the new-starts money — the first from Wisconsin — was submitted Tuesday, said Ken Yunker, deputy director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

But the application is lacking a major item that federal reviewers expect: a local funding source to cover both the remaining $40 million or so in construction costs and the projected $10.9 million in annual operating costs that won’t be paid from fares. The transit authority has asked the Legislature to authorize a $13-a-car increase in the three-county agency’s $2 rental car tax, but that issue is awaiting action in the conference committee that is considering the entire 2007-’09 state budget.

Complicating the issue further is the concern of Milwaukee aldermen and Milwaukee County supervisors that the business-led push for the KRM line is overshadowing the plight of the Milwaukee County bus system, which could be facing an eighth straight year of fare increases and route cuts. That factor has delayed Common Council approval of land-use plans around the Milwaukee train stations, another item needed for the federal application.

A council committee has said the land-use endorsement should be conditional on several factors. One is transit authority backing for Barrett’s streetcar plan, to carry KRM passengers from the downtown Amtrak station to other downtown destinations. Another is paying for the KRM line through a dedicated source that also would fund buses and streetcars.

Competing proposals

Barrett has proposed using $91.5 million in long-idle federal transit aid for a three-mile downtown streetcar loop and for two new express bus routes. Walker opposes streetcars and wants the federal money used only for express buses.

The Milwaukee Connector Study Committee, which is trying to use the federal cash to link downtown attractions and nearby neighborhoods, agreed in March to study Barrett’s plan. The same panel agreed recently it would try to meld the two plans and ask for federal approval to study them together for the next year or so, committee Chairman Pete Beitzel said.

That agreement came as Walker and Barrett declared a transit truce to work together with suburban leaders on trying to create a four-county regional authority that could take over local bus systems and replace the current transit authority. Those talks have yet to produce an agreement on the key questions of how to run the authority and how to pay for it.

By contrast, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has dropped his streetcar proposal so it wouldn’t distract from a push to build a commuter rail line from Middleton through downtown Madison to Sun Prairie. Madison and Dane County officials have united behind the $250 million to $300 million commuter rail plan and are seeking legislation to create a regional transit authority to run both trains and buses, funded by a new 0.5% local sales tax.

But legislation to authorize additional regional transit authorities and transit sales taxes hasn’t even been introduced, despite backing from other major Wisconsin cities with their own transit funding problems. Without either a body to run the trains or a tax to pay for them, Madison-area officials likely will hold off on their application for federal new-starts money, Madison transit planner David Trowbridge said.

The Madison plan would use diesel multiple units, which can run as single cars or be combined into trains. On most of the line, trains would run every 20 minutes in rush hours and every 40 minutes at other times, but on the isthmus, they would operate every 10 minutes in rush hours and every 20 minutes at other times.

That level of service is closer to a light rail system than a commuter rail line, Trowbridge said. Only the New York and San Francisco areas have commuter trains running as frequently as Madison’s trains would operate.

JSOnline.com Transportation: For more news and answers to frequently asked questions about commuter rail and streetcars, see www.jsonline.com/traffic.

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