Milwaukee Intermodal Station Train Shed Rendering

The second phase of the redevelopment of the Milwaukee Intermodal Station will begin next month.  The $18 million project, which has been in the works since as early as 2005, will be a significant, long overdue, upgrade to the more than forty-year-old train shed.  The driving factors behind the project is to bring the train shed into ADA, fire, and Homeland Security compliance as well as to match the train shed to the rest of the facility.

Although this project is not part of the City of Milwaukee’s oversight, at the September 1st, 2010 meeting of the Milwaukee Common Council Alderman Dudzik brought a resolution forward that had it been approved would have requested the state delay the project until after the gubernatorial race.  Alderman Bauman responded to Alderman Dudzik’s resolution, by explaining that since 1965 the train shed hasn’t seen an upgrade of much significance.  He pointed out the structure has “rusting steel members”, “cracked and broken platform areas”, and went on to say that “any reasonable person would agree this facility is suffering from deferred maintenance.”  Dudzik’s measure was soundly defeated by a vote of 13 No’s, 1 Yes, and 1 Excused.

Below is a Gallery of the Milwaukee Intermodal Station Train Shed Redevelopment Renderings

How the existing Hiawatha Service will be extended to Madison is illustrated in this image from WisDOT.

On Thursday the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released nearly $80 million of the $8 billion allocated to fund high-speed rail. This is a historic milestone for the build-out of high-speed rail across America as it’s the first time the federal government has released any of the funds to the states. While Florida received the bulk of the funds in this issuance ($66,000,000), Wisconsin was far from left out receiving $5,700,000. The funds Wisconsin received are to conduct environmental assessments of planned stations on the Madison-Milwaukee extension. While the environmental assessments won’t put construction workers to work across the state, they are an integral part of getting the high-speed Hiawatha operating by 2013.

The areas that will be studied as they currently lack a station are Madison, Watertown, Oconomowoc, and Brookfield. Presumably there won’t be much studying of the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, as the station currently serves existing Hiawatha and Empire Builder trains. These funds will support the study of the recently announced downtown Madison Monona Terrace station. It’s not clear at this point if an assessment would be conducted of a Wauwatosa station.

Megabus buses loading and unloading in Chicago

It’s hard to fault Megabus for dropping the routes if they’re losing money.  The service survives without any direct public subsidy. To that end, Megabus has always been tuning service, whether it was dropping service to Pittsburgh and Louisville, adding service to Madison and Champaign, eliminating the entire West Coast operation, or installing wifi and power outlets on every bus. Sad as it is to see service cuts, the service appears to continue to thrive because of the constant eye placed on the bottom line.

Thankfully with the more-expensive, but quicker Amtrak Hiawatha in the mix there are still are numerous options to go from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to Chicago Union Station.  The only true lacking in service options is a real late night train to be able to come back from events such as concerts, games, and festivals in either city.  Hopefully the KRM/Metra commuter rail service is one day able to bridge that gap.

Here’s to hoping that instead of getting reduced, service continues to improve between Milwaukee and Chicago. New Talgo passenger cars are on the way for Amtrak, and Megabus has wifi and power outlets on-board now. The technology is looking up, hopefully the service offerings follow.

Milwaukee to Chicago (runs that were eliminated highlighted in red)

• 6:30 AM (arrive 8:30)
• 8:30 AM (arrive 10:25)
• 1:00 PM (arrive 3:00)
• 2:30 PM (arrive 4:25)
• 7:00 PM (arrive 8:55)
• 9:45 PM (arrive 11:45)

Chicago to Milwaukee (runs that were eliminated highlighted in red)

• 7:00 AM (arrive 8:55)
• 9:30 AM (arrive 11:05)
• 11:30 AM (arrive 1:25)
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:55)
• 5:30 PM (arrive 7:25)
• 9:30 PM (arrive 11:25)

Effective Megabus and Amtrak Schedule – Milwaukee to Chicago (as of December 1st, 2009)

• 6:15 AM (arrive 7:57) – Amtrak – Monday through Saturday
• 8:00 AM (arrive 9:29) – Amtrak
• 8:30 AM (arrive 10:25) – Megabus
• 11:00 AM (arrive 12:29) – Amtrak
• 1:00 PM (arrive 2:29) – Amtrak
• 1:00 PM (arrive 3:00) – Megabus
• 2:30 PM (arrive 4:25) – Megabus
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:29) – Amtrak
• 5:45 PM (arrive 7:14) – Amtrak
• 7:35 PM (arrive (9:04) – Amtrak
• 9:45 PM (arrive 11:45) – Megabus

Effective Megabus and Amtrak Schedule – Chicago to Milwaukee (as of December 1st, 2009)

• 6:00 AM (arrive 7:29) – Amtrak – Monday through Saturday
• 7:00 AM (arrive 8:55) – Megabus
• 8:25 AM (arrive 9:54) – Amtrak
• 10:20 AM (arrive 11:49) – Amtrak
• 11:30 AM (arrive 1:25) – Megabus
• 1:05 PM (arrive 2:34) – Amtrak
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:55) – Megabus
• 3:15 PM (arrive 4:44) – Amtrak
• 5:08 PM (arrive 6:45) – Amtrak
• 5:30 PM (arrive 7:25) – Megabus
• 8:05 PM (arrive 9:34) – Amtrak

Comments could and should focus around how or why you would use the streetcar, what routes are best of the proposed routes, what service frequency you would like, hours of operation, how it should interact with existing transit systems (i.e. the 10, 15, 30 MCTS routes), vehicle types, and what future extensions should be.

It’s important you make a comment on the record in support of the streetcar. If you can’t make the meeting, you can leave a comment online.

As a refresher, here’s our latest article on the issue (with route #1 winning overwhelming in the poll.  You can also view two PowerPoints on the proposed streetcar line.  One from the office of Mayor Barrett and another from the Milwaukee Connector study group.

Jim Doyle and Barack Obama, the golden ticket to high-speed rail in Wisconsin?

Things look good for high-speed rail (110mph max speed) to be connecting Milwaukee and Madison courtesy of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.  The state has actively drafted plans for the route and conducted environmental assessments to put Wisconsin as close to first in line as possible if and when capital funding were to become available.  The stimulus package provides just the perfect opportunity.

While we won’t know if Wisconsin gets the funds until the final months of the year at the earliest, the announcement that Talgo will locate in Wisconsin and that $47 million in train equipment will be purchased from Talgo seems to indicate that Governor Doyle is either extremely confident we’ll get the money, or has received a verbal promise.

Milwaukee has recently invested in an excellent, centrally-located intermodal station that will provide an excellent hub on the line.  The Milwaukee Intermodal Station itself is near a number of bus transit routes, will likely be served by the coming streetcar, and is even within walking distance of numerous destinations.  It also features a lot of available, low-cost parking, which encourages many to take the Amtrak Hiawatha to Chicago from further off neighborhoods and suburbs.  Also important, the development potential of the site is limited only the looming presence of Interstate 794, something that eventually be overcome.

The Milwaukee Intermodal Station is a welcoming hub for transit in Milwaukee.

Madison’s Plan

What does Madison have?  Well at the moment, nothing.  The plan is, however, for the stop to be located at the Dane County Airport in Madison.

What does the airport provide in terms of opportunity?  For starters at least a $12 cab ride to the Capitol.  Sure it provides parking, but at a cost greater than the parking in an urban location in Milwaukee.

There are few to no development opportunities at the airport itself, which of course enforces building height restrictions.  The proposed station site is a big parking lot shared with the airport that can never be developed, and it is constrained by a creek and other wetlands. Without connections to an urban context or a street grid, walking to the station will never happen, and taking a bus isn’t much better. The current single bus route that serves the airport  requires a transfer at Madison Metro’s North Transfer Point to reach downtown.

Yahara Station

Thankfully Madison-based urban planner Barry Gore provides a voice of reason and compromise between the WisDOT recommend to build the station on the mainline track at the airport versus bringing the train down Madison’s isthmus.  Gore advocates for placing the station at Burr Jones Field. This location, near the intersection of First Street and East Washington Avenue provides roughly 950 feet of undivided land stretching over to East Johnson Avenue, which he claims is enough to site the 600-foot-long station platform.  The site seems to be a logical compromise between an expensive downtown Madison station, and the remote Dane County Airport station, the Burr Jones Field stop, in-between Washington and Johnson on First Street, presents a wealth of opportunity.

Before diving into why Gore’s Yahara Station idea appears to make a lot of sense, it’s important to understand why an urban location was passed over in the first place by WisDOT.

1. Cost – A significant amount of track would have to be rebuilt to build a station closer to the Capital Square near the Monana Terrace convention center.

2. The fear of back tracking – With the of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative proposing to have a line from Chicago to the Twin Cities, going too far into the isthmus would require back tracking out onto the mainline, possibly adding twenty minutes to the trip.

The Yahara Station addresses those points and more.  The station wouldn’t require any back tracking, as the station’s location is on the track to go to the airport.  In fact, Yahara Station’s location is 3.4 miles closer to Milwaukee, and correspondingly 3.4 miles closer to downtown Madison.  According to Gore, if six trains run between Madison and Milwaukee a day as proposed the milage savings are incredible: Out to the airport and back is twice 3.4 miles, or 6.8 miles on every trip, 40.8 miles a day, 285 extra miles a week,  1244 miles a month, and 14,892 miles a year.  That’s before considering the savings on buses, taxis, and personal automobiles driving to and from the site.  Also considerable savings would be found in seven fewer crossing signals being forced to come down and block traffic on the train’s route to and from the airport.

The route into Madison the train would take with either proposal. The turning point is the proposed location of Yahara Station.

Short term cost savings are found at Yahara Station by shaving off 3.4 miles of track that need to be rebuilt. Keep in mind that there isn’t station at the airport currently either, so both stations would require new construction costs.

Transit access is far superior at the Yahara Station site, with 14 bus routes within a block of the proposed station, and eliminating the need for a transfer to get downtown.  The station is within cycle range of the UW campus, and offers a much cheaper cab ride to downtown.

The development potential of the Yahara Station site is nearly unlimited, compared to that of the airport site.  There isn’t much around the site at the moment, but that isn’t a bad thing.  Furthermore the developable parcels nearby would provide ample opportunity for firms looking to add locations in Madison to locate offices, as well as a logical spot to continue condo development as it spreads out from downtown.  Perhaps most importantly to those that would drive to the station, the currently under-utilized land would drive parking costs down for those looking to drive to the train.

Orientation of the station as well as likely land to be developed is pictured.

Potential Hold-Up?

What’s the hold-up with what seems such a logical plan?  The proposal by Gore came late in the process, and WisDOT is reluctant to change their plan in a way that might jeopardize the potential $500+ million in stimulus dollars needed for the project. Gore understands the timing issue, but doubts that such a change would jeopardize the funds.

A simple compromise seems to be take the clearly better station as a back-burner plan, get the funds from the stimulus dollars, and then change the plans during the final design process.  At this point no construction documents have been prepared for the project.  Scared of the federal government taking the funds?  Look at how long Milwaukee has held onto $91.5 million, which was originally $289 million for bus lanes on the interstate.

The airport plan will certainly hurt ridership on the line, and it’s fortunate that such a opportunity has presented itself in the Yahara Station to fix the potential misstep by WisDOT.

Why It Matters to Milwaukee

Why does this matter to Milwaukee?  The station’s location significantly affects the mobility of travelers from Milwaukee and Chicago upon arrival in Madison.  A more central location affords flexibility for spouses to work in different cities, greatly increasing the number of available jobs.  It allows students to more reliably get from one city to the other. A downtown-to-downtown connection also greatly increases the ability for businesses to collaborate and grow in both cities.

Additional Documents

• Yahara Station Overview Document
• Yahara Station Detailed Plan
• Gore’s Letter to Representative Pocan
• Why the Airport Station Won’t Work

If you’re still not convinced, enjoy this story.

Fast forward to 2013.

President Barack Obama, fresh off a narrow re-election victory over Sarah Palin, is celebrating the opening of new Amtrak service between his hometown of Chicago and Madison.

Obama is riding with Gov. Jim Doyle and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz as the train rumbles past East Towne and under Wisconsin 30 and starts across East Washington Avenue.

“There’s the Capitol,” says Obama, looking out the window of a new Spanish-built Talgo passenger car. But instead of slowing, the train sweeps around the corner at First Street and starts heading back out of town.

“Wait a second,” says the confused president. “I thought you promised we’d stop in Madison for a beer?”

Doyle looks sheepishly at Cieslewicz before answering.

“We will eventually stop, Mr. President, but the new Madison train station is actually out at the airport,” an embarrassed Doyle explains. “We’ll have to get a ride back into town.”

“Forget that,” says Obama, grabbing his briefcase and ordering the engineer to stop at East Johnson Street. “I’m thirsty. You airport guys can meet me later.”

It’s easy to see why Governor Jim Doyle is pushing for Talgo to locate in Janesville. While Talgo would bring only 80 jobs after a loss of thousands, the hard hit city would gain momentum from a likely to growth in industry.  Janesville is more desperate for the breath of economic life, and the addition of Talgo would have a greater immediate impact than it would in Milwaukee.  If you’re Governor of Wisconsin, it’s obvious why you would push for Janesville.

If you’re Antonio Perez, CEO of Talgo, it’s easy to see where you want to locate your company’s new assembly and maintenance facility.  Milwaukee provides both land and water access for shipping in parts and personnel.  Milwaukee also is actually on a passenger rail line, the Amtrak Hiawatha, where Talgo’s first Wisconsin order will go.  Should Wisconsin get it’s stimulus request for the development of a Madison to Milwaukee line, Talgo’s second Wisconsin order would also be utilized in the same city it’s assembled.  Janesville is not part of any passenger rail plans, neither short nor long-term.

Perhaps the biggest kicker is the potential cost-savings in possible partnership with Milwaukee-based Super Steel who manufacturers train cars for Metra and light-rail vehicles.  A Super Steel partnership in some form is exactly what the Milwaukee legislative contingent is pushing for.

Talgo it’s easy, come to Milwaukee.

The move, which many see as a slam of Milwaukee by Doyle, arguably shouldn’t be completely viewed that way.  Doyle did propose a three-county sales tax of up to 0.5% for Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha Counties to establish an authority that would operate all of the transit in the area including the KRM.  Doyle’s reasoning for the veto was that the MTA didn’t have a regional approach.

Some have speculated that this was done as part of Doyle’s potential re-election bid.  That it was an attempt to position himself against Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.  I don’t buy that, Doyle had proposed the sales tax in his budget previously, and he wouldn’t have allowed the KRM to continue to move forward because, Walker will surely run all over rural Wisconsin talking about “Doyle’s choo choo,” sales tax or no sales tax.  If Doyle was that desperate to position himself against Walker, he would have vetoed the KRM as well.  I can’t speak for Doyle, but I think this was a clear statement to southeastern Wisconsin to get its act in order and come up with a functional, regional solution.

So what’s next? Something has to happen as the 2010 MCTS funding crisis is quickly approaching.  The word on the street is that Doyle is pushing the legislature for a real regional sales tax for Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee Counties to be introduced as its own legislation.

Now is the time for the Milwaukee caucus to actually deliver for their constituents and get this done.  We’ve watched Lena Taylor and Pedro Colon settle on the Joint Finance Committee for a compromise that gave Racine and Kenosha a free ride as a way to protect Racine Senator John Lehman, but now is the time for real action, real solutions.  Because with the funding crisis looming, and Scott Walker probably willing to cut off his own arm to avoid raising taxes, it’s now or never time.

Unfortunately, what is the Milwaukee caucus doing right now?  Pouting.  Taylor, Colon, and Grigsby led the charge on the Joint Finance Committee to vote down a small spending allotment of $35,000 to further study the KRM.

Even worse, Milwaukee County Board Chair, Lee Holloway has given a series of statements which sound more like a whining teenager, than someone who is determined to leverage his friends in the legislature to go out and get a real funding solution for a real crisis.

Meanwhile, Holloway said he would work against the KRM line by appointing himself and an ally to the transit authority board.

“We are going to vote against the KRM, right down the line,” Holloway said.

“It’s just terrible,” Holloway said. “I’m very critical of (Doyle). I thought he was a friend of Milwaukee County.”

It’s time for our Milwaukee caucus to bring home a real dedicated funding solution for transit in southeastern Wisconsin.

The item of most interest to most Milwaukeeans, outside of income tax levels, is the proposed Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority.  We have created a chart to track the changes that have been made to the proposal, and included a more in-depth explanations into each step below.

What will come out of the conference committee to merge the two budgets, we cannot guess.  In regards to stimulus funds, the amount of money for high-speed rail jumped up to $8 billion, from previous considerations of around $2 billion.  Conference committees are a bit unpredictable sometimes.  It looks like the KRM will get done, one way or another, and that a new sales tax is coming for Milwaukee County.

We’ll update you when we know more, but for now here is a look at how it got to the way it is.

RTA Board, Governor’s Budget Proposal

Governor Doyle stuck his neck out to include the recommendations of SEWISRTA in his original budget proposal.  Those recommendations, as a refresher, were up to a 0.5% sales tax to fund the KRM and transit services in Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee Counties and remove transit from the property tax.  Also included was the ability for municipalities to enact a .15% sales tax for public safety, which was included to gain the support of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.  When Doyle issued his recommendations, he removed Barrett’s 0.15% sales tax.

RTA Board Recommendations
Governor Doyle Budget Recommendation

Joint Finance Committee

The Joint Finance Committee of the Wisconsin State Legislature then took up the Governor’s proposed budget, and made their changes.  The Joint Finance Committee RTA changes were made in the middle of the night , with a number of Republicans (who hold the minority in both the Senate and Assembly) heading out to the bars while waiting for Democrats to finish caucasing behind closed doors.

When the meeting finally started, Senator Lena Taylor, Representatives Pedro Colon and Tamara Grigsby had helped turn the southeastern Wisconsin RTA in two RTAs.  One “regional” transit authority for Milwaukee County only, that was funded by a 1% sales tax, and was in charge of supporting transit, parks, EMS, and culture.  The amendment included no clear dividing lines between areas, so it wasn’t clear if Milwaukee County would have parks paved with gold or the best-staffed EMS department in the world.  Of that 1%, 15% would go directly to the City of Milwaukee, with no apparent restrictions on how it could be spent.  This was somewhat similar to the referendum that was narrowly approved by Milwaukee County voters on November 4th.

The second RTA created was the KRM authority, which would operate the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line.  The motion was sponsored by Senator John Lehman, Senator Lena Taylor, Representiave Cory Mason, and Representative Pedro Colon.  Instead of using the RTA board recommended, and Governor proposed .5% sales tax to fund both buses and the commuter rail line, the rail line was to be funded by a $16 rental car tax (per transaction).  A pork stop for Pedro Colon was included to have the train’s first stop out of the Intermodal Station be at East National Avenue (originally called West in the motion that was distributed), a mere mile out of the station.  A stop would make sense in such a location for a light-rail or streetcar vehicle, but not a heavy rail train.  Additionally, the make-up of the board was extremely partisan in nature, with the Milwaukee and Kenosha County Board Chairs appointing their county’s representative as the County Executives in each respective county is a Republican.  Racine County would have had their member appointed by the County Executive.  Bonding authority for the KRM was also reduced to $50 million.  The motion was approved on a party line vote, 12 aye, 4 no.

Representative Robin Vos (R) from Racine County proposed a motion to require a referendum be held in each county to approve the KRM and to exclude western Racine County from the rental car tax.  It was defeated on a party line vote, 4 aye, 12 no.  Vos also moved to amend the KRM authority to have county members of the authority appointed by the county executives.  This was again defeated on a party line vote.

Motion 218 – Southeast RTA
Motion 223 – KRM Authority
Motion 226 – KRM Authority
Motion 228 – KRM Authority

Wisconsin State Assembly

On June 10th, 2009, the Wisconsin State Assembly approved their version of the budget.  They approved a version of transit services more similar to what the Governor and RTA board had recommended than the Joint Finance Committee’s approval.  In brief, the Assembly approved a few key changes to the Joint Finance Committee motions.

• Rename KRM authority SERTA (South Eastern Regional Transit Authority).  Designate it the only entity in Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha that can apply as an RTA to the FTA.
• Rename the Milwaukee Regional Transit Authority the Milwaukee Transit Authority (MTA).
• Authorize the Milwaukee County Board to assess a .65¢ sales tax for Milwaukee County. Mandate ½ ¢ has to go to the Milwaukee Transit Authority for transit.
• If the sales tax is adopted, existing funding for transit must be removed from property tax levy.
• Authorize the Milwaukee County Board to approve up to .15% (NOTE: Urban Milwaukee believes this should be cents, not percent, as that would be 9.75 cents as written) of the sales tax go to Milwaukee County municipalities prorated on a formula based on the number of police and fire employees within each municipality.
• Increase the approved car rental tax to $18. Designate that $1 per vehicle from this vehicle rental tax will go to the City of Racine for the Belle Urban System & $1 per vehicle go to the City of Kenosha for the Kenosha Transit Authority to support their local transit systems. Each city will then be required to generate new funds to match new car rental tax revenues. The $1 for the respective cities will not be released by SERTA until the City of Racine and the City of Kenosha have demonstrated an established funding source to produce the matching funds.
• Add a KRM stop in the City of Milwaukee at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Bay Street. (NOTE: This is a long-discussed stop in Representative Jon Richards district)
• Include language specifying that municipalities in Racine and Kenosha Counties, outside of the cities of Racine & Kenosha, shall not have a KRM transit stop in those municipalities until they each provide for a sustainable mechanism to generate new funding to contribute to the Belle Urban System or the Kenosha Transit Authority.
• Restore the language from Governor Doyle’s budget proposal to provide $100 million in bonding
  authority.

The Assembly made adjustments to the KRM after key members met with members of Herb Kohl’s staff and communicated with FTA officials to learn what it would take to get federal approval for the project (federal funds are key to the development of the KRM).

Full Assembly KRM Amendment

Wisconsin State Senate

The Wisconsin State Senate approved a budget closer to that of the Joint Finance Committee than the Assembly on June 18th, 2009.  In brief, their key changes included the following.

• Delete the Milwaukee County Regional Transit Authority (RTA) proposed under the substitute amendment. Remove the reference to the Milwaukee County RTA as an eligible applicant under the southeast Wisconsin transit capital assistance program and, instead, make Milwaukee County an eligible applicant under that program.
• Grant Milwaukee County the ability to enact an additional 1% sales tax for transit, parks, culture, and emergency medical services, and require the property tax levy be reducing by $67 million (NOTE: this would be about half of what the sales tax brings in).
• Require Milwaukee County to distribute the other 15% of the new sales and use tax revenues to the municipalities in Milwaukee County. Require the municipalities to use these funds to support police, fire, and emergency medical services. Specify that the funds would be allocated among the municipalities in Milwaukee County on a per capita basis.
• Rename the KRM Authority, as proposed in the substitute amendment, the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SERTA). Modify the appointments to the SERTA board by specifying that the Kenosha County board chair, rather than the Kenosha County Executive, would appoint the Kenosha County member to the board. Specify that SERTA would be an eligible applicant for the southeastern Wisconsin transit capital assistance program that would be created under the substitute amendment. Require that the KRM commuter rail project include a stop in the City of Milwaukee at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Bay Street.

Full Senate Budget – Page 65 for RTA

The matter is anything but a done deal, and your support is turning a few votes.

Please make a call Wednesday if you have the chance.  Even if it’s just a one second “vote for the RTA on Thursday”, it’ll make a difference.

Please call, your city needs you.

Senator John Lehman (Racine) especially needs to hear from you!
(608) 266-1832 (866) 615-7510, Fax (608) 267-6793, Sen.Lehman@legis.wisconsin.gov
PO Box 7882, Madison, 53707

Representative Cory Mason (Racine)
(608) 266-0634, Rep.Mason@legis.wisconsin.gov
PO Box 8953, Madison, 53708

Representative Robin Vos (Racine)
888 534-0063, 608 282-3663 fax, rep.vos@legis.wisconsin.gov
PO Box 8953, Madison, 53708

Representative Pedro Colon (Milwaukee)
888 534-0008, 608 282-3608 fax, rep.colon@legis.wisconsin.gov
PO Box 8952, Madison, 53708

Representative Tamara Grigsby (Milwaukee)
888 534-0018, 608 282-3618 fax, rep.grigsby@legis.wisconsin.gov
PO Box 8952, Madison, 53708

Senator Lena Taylor (Milwaukee)
608 266-5810, 608 267-2353 fax, sen.taylor@legis.wisconsin.gov
PO Box 7882, Madison, 53707

Senator Alberta Darling (Milwaukee)
608 266-5830, 608 267-0588 fax, sen.darling@legis.wisconsin.gov
PO Box 7882, Madison, 53707

[Full disclosure, Jeramey is a member of the RTA Steering Committee and a passionate advocate for the efficiencies of mass transit.]

More money should have been spent on minimizing the impact the interchange and Interstate 794′s have in dividing the Third Ward from downtown.  This includes not only the obvious areas between East Town and the Third Ward near the Milwaukee Public Market, but the less obvious, but looming problem, the visually isolated Milwaukee Intermodal Station.

How could this be achieved?  Well, as mentioned previously, putting more lipstick on the pig ala better lighting under the interstate to encourage more pedestrian activity from one side to the other (and hopefully encourage more development).

As I said before…

The idea I like the most is the creation of a barrier between the streets and the parking lots with rotating public art from area students.  Mix that with upward shooting lights and more contemporary designed fixtures to achieve an experience under the freeway that is similar to walking along the Riverwalk.  Make the area as visually appealing as possible to reduce the negative impact the massive cement structure has on adjacent land.

WisDOT did seem to have some intention of doing something with the space under 794.  Hopefully they follow through with that, and do something other than generic surface parking lots and what they refer to as “architecturally-enhanced piers”.  The “architecturally-enhanced piers” (pictured blow) were seriously what’s mentioned on MChange.org as all it would take to make the area more appealing.

The other low-hanging fruit (concrete) is the removal of the temporary lanes separating the two portions of 794.  It appears in an effort to make the project come in under budget, WisDOT decided to just leave construction pieces at the site (a supposedly temporary concrete piece bigger than the Milwaukee Public Market).  Unfortunately, leaving the temporary lanes in place (pictured below) makes the space under the freeway completely dark, negating the “architecturally-enhanced piers”.

The lights on the Marquette Interchange are a good thing.  They make driving through downtown more noticeable (if the skyline was failing to do that already) and will probably help the image of the city.  My concern is just that WisDOT should be spending more attention to the visual effect the freeway has on the land bordering it in the city.  More lighting under the freeway would help.

Ironically, the happy motorists living in the suburbs seem to have an issue with $815,000 being spent on lights, but not on the $810,000,000 cost of the entire project.  Ironic?  We think so.  The entire project did cost 1,000 times as much as the lights.  Penny-wise, pound-foolish comes to mind.

While you’re free to vote for whatever you may wish, I encourage you to consider the following aspects as criteria for judging a plan.

1. Ability to serve 78,000 individuals working downtown, and the 15,000 or so that live in the area.

2. Ability to serve event attendees coming downtown and parking at various locations.

3. Ability to interact with existing systems (Amtrak, intercity bus, MCTS) and future ones (KRM, HSR).

4. Ability to encourage future development.

5. The line is close 3 miles (applications significantly greater than 3 miles were disqualified).

The Proposals

• The Mayor’s
• Downtown to Brady by Sam Dodge
• Line to UWM by Sam Dodge
• Ogden-Third Ward-MAM by Sam Dodge
• Viaduct Streetcar by Dan
• UWM to Ogden and Van Buren by Joe Klein
• Downtown to Walker’s Point by Marty
• North Side-Marquette-Cathedral Square by Dave Steele
• North Side-Brewery-Downtown by Dave Steele
• Entertainment Streetcar by Rob Vosters
• Transit Idea A by Streetcar Sam

The Ballot Box

The Assembly and Senate could certainly remove it from the budget they approve, but with Democrats in control of both houses the odds of that are lower than in years past.

If Doyle had not put the recommendations in his budget, the currently advisory RTA would have dissolved, and Milwaukee would have had to wait another two years for the next budget proposal to have a shot at fixing the looming transit funding crisis (which would have been in full swing by then).

So say it’s included in the final budget, what does that mean?  Depending on the exact language, each county will then have the ability to pull the trigger on an RTA sales tax up to 0.5%.  Each county will arrive at that final amount, based on a local committee that determines a budget for the county and includes the localized cost of the KRM commuter rail line.

Today is a good day for mass transit in the Milwaukee region.