MCTS Halting Plans for Second Bus Rapid Transit Route

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

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) announced its plans to table a second bus rapid transit line as the transit system grapples with fiscal challenges.

MCTS is recommending to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors to pause the Connect 2 Bus Rapid Transit project “due to a current lack of funding and ongoing fiscal challenges,” the transit system said. Notably, the transit system said its structural budget deficit is returning earlier than anticipated. It’s unlikely the county will be able to bail the transit system out, as policymakers go into the 2025 budget with a tens of millions of dollars projected budget deficit. The newly instituted sales tax is also yielding lower than anticipated collections, one of several factors creating a $19 million countywide deficit in 2024.

The second bus rapid transit route would run 18 miles along the 27th Street corridor, providing faster service in one of the busiest transit corridors in the MCTS system. The route would span the county and provide a connection to Connect 1, which runs nine miles east and west between downtown Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa.

Connect 2 was estimated to cost approximately $148 million. County transit officials were working through a federal grant process in hopes of securing 80% of the funding for the project. Pausing the project now would derail the planning and momentum built toward securing a grant, with hopes to begin construction by 2026 and have the service launched by 2028.

The route for the proposed BRT service was unveiled in 2022 and, going north to south, it runs from Bayshore Town Center in Glendale to the Ikea store in Franklin. The route’s connection to Connect 1 at the intersection of N. 27th Street and W. Wisconsin Avenue was supposed to become a “tentpole” holding up a new high-frequency transit system, MCTS Enhanced Transit Manager David Locher previously said.

County transit officials have spent the past few years planning the project, along with help from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and the engineering consultant HNTB. The route was unveiled in 2022. In February, the county board adopted the design as the “locally preferred alternative,” providing a critical approval for the project’s federal grant application.

“Currently, Milwaukee County Transit System does not have a sustainable funding source,” the transit system said. “The 0.4% sales tax increase implemented by Milwaukee County in 2024 prevented major cuts to transit service,”

The transit system cited new projections showing the sales tax is underperforming. The new 0.4% sales tax helped to boost the county’s budget, preventing cuts to transit, MCTS said. But, as Urban Milwaukee reported, MCTS has a structural budget deficit that will return when federal funding runs out at the end of 2026. Only now, the transit system is reporting that it will face a $15 million deficit as soon as next year, 2025.

County government, as a whole, is facing its own budget challenges going into 2025. In March, the Office of the Comptroller projected an $11.5 million deficit for 2025 that policymakers must overcome in the annual budget. But by July, the comptroller’s projection nearly doubled, largely due to poor sales tax collections, pushing it up as high as $19 million.

“Pausing the Connect 1 project at the current phase frees up potentially $15 million in one-time temporary funds that can be directed toward MCTS operating costs to maintain current service levels and avoid route disruptions,” MCTS said in a statement.