MCTS Eyes PurpleLine Upgrades After Connect 2 Demise

MCTS bus. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

After shelving the 27th street rapid transit project, the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is pursuing federal funding to make upgrades to the same corridor.

Transit officials recently applied for a federal grant to improve and add to existing transit infrastructure along the PurpleLine, the 18-mile route running north and south along the 27th Street Corridor, as noted in a report from the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT). The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE grant program, provides funding for projects up to $25 million.

MCTS will not use the funds to restart development of the Connect 2, a planned $148 million, 18-mile bus rapid transit project that would have replaced the PurpleLine in the 27th Street Corridor. The project would have intersected with the Connect 1, which is the county’s bus rapid transit line running east and west between downtown Milwaukee and Wauwatosa.

The Connect 2 project was shelved in order to use the remaining planning funds to backfill the operating budget for the transit system. MCTS has a structural deficit that has been filled for years now with federal pandemic-era stimulus funding. With the funding pulled from the Connect 2 project, the system will be able to maintain its current funding until 2028.

For the PurpleLine, transit officials are seeking grant funding to upgrade bus shelters, optimize traffic signals for transit and add traffic-calming infrastructure to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. Traffic calming infrastructure can include things like curb bump-outs and protected bike lanes.

The PurpleLine is regularly among the most used routes in the system. It runs through five municipalities and neighborhoods that meet federal definitions for “areas of persistent poverty” and “historically disadvantaged communities.” These statistics are among the reasons the corridor was targeted for a transit enhancement. Now those statistics make the route eligible for a potential RAISE grant.

The upgrades MCTS is pursuing will not require increased operating costs the way the Connect 2 project would have. At the time the project was being put away, officials estimated the additional buses needed to ensure high-frequency service along the route would cost an additional $6 million.

As the system stands right now, it does not have enough operational funding for the routes it already runs. The Connect 2 has been called the “canary in the coal mine” for what will happen if the system does not secure new or additional funding by 2029, when stimulus funds run out. Meaning more cutbacks in the system may be required.

When development of the Connect 2 stopped, officials characterized it as a “pause” or a shelving of the project. But it’s unlikely work will resume any time over the next decade as the system looks instead to ways it can cut costs.

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