Make Your Opinion Known On Second BRT Line

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

It’s not too late to shape the $148 million bus rapid transit project the county is planning in the 27th Street corridor.

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) has decided on the route it would like to pursue for a new 18-mile bus rapid transit service. But it hasn’t finalized the detailed, ground-level design, and the transit agency has released a survey to collect public ideas for the project.

The service, called Connect 2, is planned to run north and south, primarily along 27th Street. It would span nearly the entire length of the county. Like Connect 1, which launched last June, it will be designed as a bus rapid transit service, using dedicated lanes, traffic signal priority, level boarding from elevated bus platforms and off-bus fare collection to reduce travel times through the corridor. The route will intersect with the Connect 1 line at the intersection of N. 27th Street and W. Wisconsin Avenue.

It’s unlikely Connect 2 will employ battery electric buses. County transportation officials are moving away from the technology and are uneasy about the idea of linking them to Connect 2, which will need approximately 40 buses to operate.

At a public meeting on the project in February, County Executive David Crowley pointed to the thousands of jobs along the 27th Street Corridor, which includes Aurora St. Luke’s Hospital, and said the project fits with his strategic plan for the county to achieve racial equity, “because reliable and safe transit options are paramount in addressing the health disparities right here within our community.”

Connect 1 was an important step for the county as it attempts to “revolutionize” the transit system, the county executive said.

MCTS considers Connect 1 to be a major success so far, said Denise Wandke, MCTS managing director. She said that ridership has exceeded expectations, and has become one of the most popular routes in the network. Connect 2, Wandke said, is “ambitious and forward-focused.”

David Locher, MCTS enhanced transit manager, told Urban Milwaukee the agency wants feedback to “steer” planners as they make decisions about the location of bus stations and dedicated lanes.

“We haven’t even begun the plans that would be reviewed by utility companies or things like that,” he said. “That’s when it starts to become street level, granular and real.”

The high-level project plans are going to the Milwaukee County Board this month for an important approval before MCTS applies for federal funding. MCTS will apply to the same grant program that supplied 80% of the funding for Connect 1.

Take the Connect 2 survey online.