Streetcar Route Changed Until Summerfest’s End

The Hop Festivals Line route map. Image from The Hop.

A six-day route change for The Hop will now last three weeks.

Milwaukee’s two streetcar lines will now operate as one through the last day of Summerfest, Sunday, July 6. The change will make it easier to access the lakefront and Henry Maier Festival Park, but impose delays on riders heading north from the Historic Third Ward to Downtown and the Lower East Side.

“We’re so excited about our new Festivals Line we decided to break it out early,” said the city-owned system in a June 16 social media post announcing the change.

It was previously announced that the Festivals Line would operate only on the days Summerfest was occurring, June 20-22, June 27-29 and July 4-6, but it will now operate every day until the conclusion of the “World’s Largest Music Festival.”

This year marks the first year The Hop has operated with its new lakefront (L) line during Summerfest. The extension opened to everyday service in April and overlaps with a portion of the M Line route.

Merging the lines avoids the need to transfer between lines if coming to the lakefront from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station or Lower East Side. It also prevents riders from possibly boarding the wrong vehicle.

The L Line runs on existing M Line tracks along N. Milwaukee Street and N. Broadway, but when going north follows an eastern extension along E. Michigan Street to the lakeside The Couture tower before returning to the north-south route on E. Clybourn Avenue. The longer M Line, which opened in 2018, runs from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station through the northern end of the Historic Third Ward and much of East Town before ending at E. Ogden and N. Prospect avenues at the southern tip of the Lower East Side.

In order to merge the two routes, all northbound vehicles will now follow the lakefront extension east on E. Michigan Street and back on E. Clybourn Avenue before continuing with the rest of the route.

The configuration will impose an approximately 10-minute delay on riders getting on at the Historic Third Ward stop or Milwaukee Intermodal Station and heading north of Wisconsin Avenue. But the perceived delay will be partially offset by increased service frequency, reducing wait times before climbing aboard a vehicle. Southbound trips will be unimpacted.

“With the ‘Festivals Line,’ passengers boarding at Intermodal will reach the Lakefront stop in just 12 minutes, a trip from the Historic Third Ward will take eight minutes, and reaching the festival grounds from Burns Commons will take approximately 36 minutes,” said a May 30 press release. “Lakefront/Summerfest passengers wanting to return to the Downtown Business District, Historic Third Ward or Intermodal station can transfer at Cathedral Square to the next southbound streetcar rather than traveling up to Burns Commons [and back].” The Burns Commons to festival trip time assumes riding on the vehicle until it reverses at the Intermodal and begins the northbound route.

Streetcars are expected to come every 15 minutes. Real-time vehicle position can be tracked using the TransLoc smartphone application.

Council members Robert Bauman and Jonathan Brostoff previously requested city officials explore a service change during the festivals, with Bauman noting that people arriving at the train station couldn’t take a direct ride to the lakefront.

“While The Hop has always been a wonderful option for accessing events along the Lakefront, with our new Transit Concourse at The Couture making that connection even easier we are anticipating wonderful ridership during this year’s Summerfest,” said Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke in a May statement. “We are eager to pilot this new combined line, which will both simplify and enhance our service as residents and visitors make their way to the festival grounds this summer.”

The streetcar system remains free to ride, due in part to corporate sponsorship by Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. The 2024 city budget calls for $5.8 million to be spent on operating the system. That expense is to be offset by $4.5 million in direct revenue, with the remainder coming from the city’s parking revenue. Direct revenue sources include Potawatomi ($850,000), other sponsors ($100,000), a federal pandemic-related transit grant ($2.4 million), a congestion mitigation startup grant ($880,000) and a federal transit support grant ($279,000).

Festivals Line

The Hop Festivals Line route map. Image from The Hop.

Existing System Map

The Hop’s M Line (blue) and L Line (yellow). Image from The Hop.