Milwaukee County transit eliminates nine bus routes due to 2018 budget cuts

The Milwaukee County Transit System plans to eliminate three bus routes with low ridership in March and shut down six others by mid-year to meet $882,586 worth of cuts in the system's 2018 budget approved by the County Board.

The budget ax will fall on three routes serving business and industrial parks, one route connecting downtown Milwaukee to Concordia University and the MATC North campus in Mequon, and five routes providing school-day only services for K-12 students, county Transportation Department Interim Director James Martin said in a memo to board supervisors.

No bus drivers will be laid off due to the service reductions, according to Martin.

Supervisors were notified of the proposed MCTS service reductions before a final vote on the 2018 county budget on Nov. 6.

The board rejected County Executive Chris Abele's proposed $30 increase in the wheel tax for this year, to a total of $60, and that action required supervisors to remove $14.7 million in projected wheel tax revenue from the 2018 budget.

Of that total, department heads were asked to make $3.7 million worth of across-the-board cuts, and MCTS received the heaviest blow.

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The transit system's proposed $882,586 worth of service cuts will be discussed at 9 a.m. Wednesday at a meeting of the County Board's transportation committee in the courthouse. A public hearing on the service reductions will be held at that time.

Three business and industrial park routes to be eliminated in March and daily rides provided: route 276 serving the Brown Deer Business Park with 115 rides per day; route 223 serving Park Place and Bradley Woods with 58 rides per day; and route 219 serving the Oak Creek industrial park with 36 rides per day.

The changes will save $489,000 in 2018, according to MCTS Managing Director Dan Boehm.

Route 42U from downtown to MATC North provides 87 rides a day. Halting that service at the end of the spring semester will save $136,000 this year, Boehm said.

The school-day-only services to be shut down in June and daily rides provided: route 50, 25 rides; route 85, 59 rides; route 87, 27 rides; route 88, 15 rides; route 89, 32 rides. Boehm projected a savings of $72,800.

MATC and municipal school districts will be notified of the service cuts before the end of this school year, Boehm said.

Signs will be posted at bus stops along the affected routes, and audio messages will be played on board buses, to alert passengers to the changes.

A savings of $185,000 will come from scrapping plans to add hours of service to route 17 along Canal St. in the Menomonee Valley, said Boehm. Additional service had been proposed to cover more shift change times among businesses there.