In the first step of the Milwaukee County budget process, The Milwaukee County Transit System proposed service cuts in order to avoid a property tax increase for 2012. A major factor forcing cuts is the 10% ($6.8 Million a year) in reduced State aid that Gov. Scott Walker proposed and the Legislature approved for 2012 and 2013. We project we will need to cut as much as $9.8 million in bus services to make up for this state cut and the lost passenger revenue.
Service cuts and fare increases are always our last resort, but with a funding reduction of this size and rapidly escalating fuel prices, significant service reductions will be required. It is estimated that roughly a 12% reduction in service might be required to stay within our budget. This would require a reduction of approximately 158,000 hours of service in 2012.
The reduction methodology was based on the following:
- Maintain access to job corridors and public service- we want to get people to their jobs
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Minimize loss of service to transit-dependent areas
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Consider availability of alternate service
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Simplify routes where possible
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Increase overall efficiency of service provided
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Eliminate service on lowest producing routes or segments
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Reduce service frequency on low producing route segments
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Remove or modify branching of routes
The following list shows the MCTS recommended changes to transit services.
IMPORTANT-This is just the first step in the budget process, so items may change in the process. To view the Milwaukee County Budget Timeline, go to http://county.milwaukee.gov/CountyBudget
- Eliminate Freeway Flyers Routes 40, 43, 44, 46, 48 & 49 (UBUS service, and Rts. 79 & 143 will not be affected)
- Eliminate Route 68 (Note: a portion of Rt. 68 Service on Port Washington Road between Capitol Drive and Bayshore Town Center will be provided by an extension of the Route 11)
- In fall 2012, eliminate school routes: 50, 85, 87, 88 & 89
- Eliminate extensions and enhancements which were provided by Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) funding (assuming we will not continue to receive those funds):
- Rt.12 - Extension between Good Hope Road and Brown Deer Road (Note: service north of Brown Deer Road would be maintained by a restructured N. 60 St. route)
- Rt. 27 - Service north of Hampton Avenue to the Glendale Industrial Park
- Rt. 28 - Reduce weekday service frequency
- Rt. 68 – Saturday night and all day Sunday
- Restructured Routes (You may need to
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to view these files.):
- Route segment eliminations: 12, 23, 27 & 60
- Route frequency reductions: 21, 22, 23, 30, 53, 55, 60, 62* & 63 (Note: Rt. 62 frequency reduction west of 76th St. Frequency reductions also will occur on many of the restructured routes.)
- Special event services: Due to the reduction in overall service, we believe with our limited resources, we will not be able to provide special event services. We have recommended eliminating all service (flyers and shuttles) to ethnic festivals and Summerfest and State Fair Freeway Flyers. Also, service to Miller Park via Route 90 will be discontinued.
- Reduce Transit Plus service area to the federally mandated ¾ mile of the fixed route system. Currently we are providing service outside of that area
- Increase Transit Plus fare to $4.50.