MCTS Seeking Board Approval For 27th Street BRT Line

MCTS Connect 1 at Wisconsin Avenue Stop. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is seeking approval of its final plans for a second bus rapid transit (BRT) service running through the 27th Street corridor.

Approval of the “locally preferred alternative” from the county board is a critical step in the process of securing federal funding estimated to cover 80% of the $148 million project’s costs. Transit system officials will go before the board in March. MCTS hopes to apply for federal funding at the end of 2024 and launch the line in 2028.

MCTS and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) recently completed a feasibility study. The project team, which initiated the effort in 2020, reports that it worked with community partners to conduct more than 760 hours of outreach, 130 stakeholder meetings, 14 community events and dozens of other meetings.

The 18-mile route MCTS is bringing to the board is essentially the same as the proposed route unveiled during the feasibility study, which runs north and south between Bayshore Town Center in Glendale to the Ikea store in Franklin. The final design includes a few minor adjustments to routing and station locations.

Notably, the idea of having some of the dedicated bus lanes run along the center of the street has been eliminated. All the dedicated lanes will run along the outside of the roadway.

The new bus rapid transit service will run primarily along 27th Street, N. Teutonia Avenue, and W. Silver Spring Drive. It will intersect with Connect 1, the first BRT line, at W. Wisconsin Avenue. The intersection, MCTS hopes, will become a “tentpole” for a high-frequency transit system.

The 27th Street corridor runs through a number of commercial centers and past large employers, like Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center at W. Oklahoma Avenue. Planners estimate that the route runs past 51,000 jobs and 116,000 residents.

The bus rapid transit service will employ raised, ADA-accessible bus platforms, off-bus fare collection and real-time bus trackers. But, unlike Connect 1, the route will not be operated with battery electric buses (BEB).

The project report states that MCTS plans to run new 40-foot clean diesel buses along the route, “in alignment with near-term MCTS fleet management plan.” The buses are to be specialized and branded specifically for the bus rapid transit route, according to the report.

MCTS has had issues with its own BEBs and had to pull them from the road for a factory recall just months after they began service. Top transit officials have since expressed doubts about the current technology available in the U.S. market, as Urban Milwaukee has reported.

Route map for 27th Street bus rapid transit line. Image from Milwaukee County Transit System.

Update: This story has been updated to reflect that the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) worked on the feasibility study, not HNTB.