Streetcar Extension Opens Sunday

Two The Hop streetcars pass each on E. St. Paul Ave. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The first extension of Milwaukee’s streetcar system opens Sunday, Oct. 29 at 7 a.m.

Known as the L Line, the lakefront extension of The Hop initially won’t operate like anyone planned when the 2.1-mile main line (M Line) opened in November 2018. Due to delays with the construction of a building through which it operates, service will first operate only on Sundays. Full daily service along the route is expected to begin in April 2024, when the lower half of the 44-story The Couture tower is completed and open to its first residents.

The extension includes three new stops: an eastbound stop at E. Michigan St. and N. Jackson St., a lakefront stop in the base of The Couture and a westbound stop at E. Clybourn St. and N. Jefferson St. The vehicle will proceed through The Couture initially, but will not stop in the building. It includes approximately 0.7 miles of new, one-way track.

In addition to the east-west lakefront extension, the L Line will use existing track and stations on N. Milwaukee Street and N. Broadway between E. Kilbourn and E. St. Paul avenues. The existing M Line will continue to serve the full 2.1-mile route.

Operating between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., the L Line will operate with a 20-minute headway (frequency). The schedule of the M Line is being modified to accommodate the L Line, though the scheduled window in which service is provided will not change. Headways will be reduced (improved) from 20 minutes all day to 15 minutes between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturdays. Monday through Thursday service will see headways increased after 8 p.m. to 20 minutes between trains, with the prior schedule not having the less frequent service until 10 p.m. Service will continue to be offered on the M Line from 5 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, Saturdays from 7 a.m. to midnight and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

“We are constantly examining our ridership data and exploring ways to better meet the needs of our passengers,” said Commissioner of Public Works Jerrel Kruschke in a statement Thursday. “We continue to see strong ridership numbers during peak hours, especially on weekends. This new schedule allows us to maintain all the service hours our riders count on, while providing more frequent service on Saturdays when the cars are busiest.”

The long-delayed and now one-day-a-week start can be traced back to delays with The Couture itself. The developers of the apartment tower struggled to secure financing, then encountered construction issues that extended the construction timeline by many months.

The extension was approved and funded alongside the initial route in 2015, with much of the track work completed alongside the base route’s 2018 opening. The Couture delays ultimately imperiled a 2015 federal grant for the line, requiring the city to seek an extension from Congress in 2022 on the $14.2 million grant.

The grant was scheduled to expire at the end of September 2022, but Congress granted a one-year extension. A revised development agreement for The Couture called for service to start by Oct. 31, 2023. Most of the line was completed prior to the M Line’s 2018 opening, but construction on The Couture didn’t begin until 2021 and then encountered delays. Kruschke, during an Oct. 11 media preview, didn’t deny that the grant was driving the unusual Sunday-only service start, but did say it would provide an opportunity for operator training.

Congressman Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin), whose district does not include the system, is calling for the U.S. Department of Transportation to waive the grant requirement to start service given that the building isn’t completed and winter is approaching. “This is taxpayer money chasing taxpayer money chasing taxpayer money,” said Steil in an interview with WISN 12. “We can save Milwaukee thousands of taxpayer dollars.

The 2023 city budget calls for $4.9 million to be spent on operating the streetcar system. That expense is to be offset by $3.5 million in direct revenue, with the remainder coming from the city’s parking revenue. Direct revenue sources include Potawatomi Hotel & Casino ($833,333), other sponsors ($390,000), a federal pandemic-related transit grant ($2.1 million) and a federal transit support grant ($214,000).

Testing of the route has occurred this summer as a contracting team completed the guideway for the fixed-rail system. Much of the L Line will operate without an overhead wire, with the vehicles running on battery power. The $29.2 million route’s funding allocation was part of the original $128.1 million streetcar system.

Ridership has climbed year-over-year for 29 straight months. But that streak is imperiled by a factor outside of The Hop’s control. A late August water main break in the middle of the route shuttered the system, and closed a handful of nearby buildings, for approximately a week. Buses were used for a portion of the period. Ridership for data has yet to be posted.

Additional schedule information is available on The Hop website. It is easiest to find when the next streetcar will arrive by using the TransLoc smartphone application, which shows real-time vehicle location.

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L Line route laid atop existing M Line route. Image from The Hop website.