MCTS Lacks Cash To Pay For Uber Rides For Bus Drivers
Program to pick up drivers at various points around the city would last less than two months.
MCTS bus. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
A relief program for Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) bus drivers will likely stop before it starts.
The plan was to use ride-share services to pick up bus drivers whose shift had ended mid-route. The mid-route relief points are a security concern for MCTS and the bus operators union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998. Operators, according to the union, have been assaulted as they waited for a bus back to the station.
But there’s not enough money for the program, according to MCTS.
During the 2025 budget process, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors adopted an amendment sponsored by Sup. Shawn Rolland and added $30,000 to the MCTS budget for the program. It was intended as a pilot to test the idea.
But after costing out the rides, MCTS estimates there’s not even enough money for a pilot. Between the two MCTS stations — Fond du Lac and Kinnickinnic — there are 615 relief points, where drivers get off a bus to head back to the station. The transportation network companies (TNC) told MCTS it would cost $10 a ride to provide the service, or more than $6,000 a week.
“If TNC service were provided at all relief points each week, the total cost would be $6,150,” MCTS Interim Managing Director Julie Esch wrote in a report to the Milwaukee County Board. “Funding would be exhausted in less than six weeks into the pilot.”
MCTS is not asking for more money. It’s asking the board to deauthorize the pilot program.
The transit system is already running another relief-point ride program, using two vans MCTS owns to pick up drivers at relief points. That, too, is considered a pilot.
When the ride-share program was put in the budget, the board also adopted an amendment by Sup. Justin Bielinski that funded the purchase of two additional vans to expand the van program. MCTS said it has not moved forward with the program because the board didn’t include operating funds for the vans.
The county board’s Committee on Transportation and Transit will consider the transit system’s request this month.
UPDATE: Union Doesn’t Want Ubers
ATU 998 Vice President told Urban Milwaukee the union never wanted a ride share program for relief points.
“I think it sucks. It’s too expensive, it will never work,” Brown said. “We wouldn’t want them in some strangers vehicle.”
The union likes the van service, Brown said. The van pilot MCTS is already running is working well, and picking up more drivers with only two vans than the union even anticipated.
“They’re doing an excellent job with it, so we know the van service can work,” Brown said, adding that he thinks retirees or injured operators on light-duty could even drive the vans.
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MCTS folks can’t just carpool and shuttle each other around? Uber/Lyft charge 2-3x what they used to, they’re an absolute scam and should not be supported.
What’s concerning about this is that even bus drivers aren’t safe waiting for buses. Sad state of affairs for our community.
where is the money?
I don’t understand why it’s a problem, in the eyes of MCTS, that funding would be exhausted within six weeks. Isn’t the entire point of a pilot program that it’s temporary?
Surely six weeks would be enough time to determine for sure whether or not the rideshare option is worth it, especially considering how often drivers are reportedly being picked up.
Something that’s unclear is where the vans take them. To wherever their shift started? To one of the operating stations (aka garages)? I’ve noticed off-duty drivers dead-heading on the GREEN and 15 to/from the KK station to /from their assignments. Beyond that, I haven’t thought much about getting operators to/from their assignments. Glad to read that ATU is promoting expanded use of the van system, not the ride-share option.
45 years, the drivers need rides between the garage (where their shift begins or ends and where they park their cars) and their “relief point”, a point along their route that’s distant from the garage (where they meet or leave their bus). Drivers work 8 hours/day but the buses can stay on the road for as many as 20 hours straight using several drivers.