Another Streetcar Collision
Drivers keep colliding with massive vehicles operating on steel rails.
Photo by Dave Reid.
It’s a bad month to be a 67-foot-long, 83,000-pound vehicle.
A motorist collided with a northbound The Hop streetcar on N. Jackson Street Friday afternoon at E. Street St.
On June 16, an apparent red-light runner struck a streetcar at N. Milwaukee and E. Wells St.
The latest incident, which occurred shortly before 5 p.m., briefly delayed the system before the streetcar began operating again. A large dent was visible on the sedan involved in the crash. A Milwaukee Police Department officer was on the scene.
The Hop is currently operating in a combined Festivals Line configuration due to Summerfest. The large lakefront festival draws a substantial increase in ridership for the system.
The city has a fleet of five streetcars from Brookville Equipment Corp.
The most severe crash in the system’s nearly seven-year history occurred in 2023, when a westbound garbage truck ran a red light and knocked a streetcar off the tracks. The vehicle was out of service for several months.
The Hop after the collision. Photo by Dave Reid.
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More about the Milwaukee Streetcar
For more project details, including the project timeline, financing, route and possible extensions, see our extensive past coverage.
- Another Streetcar Collision - Jeramey Jannene - Jun 27th, 2025
- Streetcar Hit By Apparent Red Light Runner - Jeramey Jannene - Jun 16th, 2025
- Streetcar Will Run On Consolidated Route During Summerfest - Jeramey Jannene - Jun 11th, 2025
- City Hall: Milwaukee Must Replace Failing Streetcar Switches - Jeramey Jannene - Feb 24th, 2025
- Streetcar Confronts Limited Funding, Operations Challenges - Evan Casey - Jan 22nd, 2025
- Council Kills Streetcar’s ‘Festivals Line’ - Jeramey Jannene - Jul 31st, 2024
- Streetcar Will Use Festivals-Oriented Route Through Summer - Jeramey Jannene - Jul 9th, 2024
- The Hop’s Lines Will Merge For Easier Summerfest Service - Jeramey Jannene - May 30th, 2024
- Streetcar Begins Daily Service To The Couture, BRT Will Soon Follow - Jeramey Jannene - Apr 11th, 2024
- Milwaukee’s Three Streetcar Extensions Need Mayoral Direction - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 8th, 2023
Read more about Milwaukee Streetcar here
Urbanist ideology meets urban reality. But at least Tom Barrett got his white elephant legacy project. Countdown to pulling out the tracks…
To attyDanAdams, what a parochial comment. Do you have any idea what development has occurred as a result of the Hop? The Hop is anything but a white elephant. While the initial routes were not the best pilot projects, expansion plans would take the Hop north to Capitol Dr. and south to the airport. In fact, proposals for expanding the system are following the old streetcar lines.
So, what is the hold up? Luddites who cannot see that public transportation systems are the future. As a country and state, investment in public transportation systems that serve everyone (instead of just the poor.) One only has to look at the Twin Cities to see how a robust public transportation system generates income and reduces pollution.
What Milwaukee County and the state of Wisconsin needs to expand both the Hop and RBT routes. All of this is on hold because Republicans in the Legislature fail to recognize the need to invest in Milwaukee infrastructures as a way to finance needed projects for the rest of the state.
So many forget the history of why the HOP even exists, we were making the best of Walker screwing everything up.
Also why doesn’t every single fender bender with car vs car get news coverage?
It’s ridiculous the hop gets SO MUCH scrutiny when it’s the ridiculous cars causing the issues in the first place.
The Hop averages 1,460 riders a day. There’s no plan to start charging riders to ride the Hop. Cost per rider averages about $10 / ride. Switches that breakdown because of the winter weather and their repair cost $100,000 to repair and replace. The taxpayers are on the hook for this nonsense. Buses already run on approximately the same route. The Badger Institute, and not a conservative publication and author Mike Nichols, in an article rightfully contend that this $128 million dollar waste of money needs to be shut down. I fully agree with Dan Abrams.
*Adams
It would get more riders if it actually went somewhere. It sorely needs expansion.
But nah GOP wanna abort this already birthed baby.
@ Colin attached is the Badger Institute article
https://www.badgerinstitute.org/derail-the-hop-permanently/
But go ahead just blame the GOP.
As a reminder, Mke is a blue city and it was the Democrats who designed this route, and Barrett who pushed for this. Now Barrett is gone, and takes no responsibility for this mess.
The Hop and expanded bike lane system are the best moves made by city leaders in decades. Suck it GOP obstructionists.
@tmaloney
https://www.badgerinstitute.org/derail-the-hop-permanently/
It’s a complete, and poorly thought out waste of money.
You have no idea if I vote conservative or liberal.
@jsalmon1159:
You say: “You have no idea if I vote conservative or liberal.”
Upthread, you say “The Badger Institute, and not a conservative publication . . .”
The Badger Institute, aka The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, has a long track record of supporting school vouchers, Scott Walker (whose idea of public transportation was to make sure everybody has a car), right-wing policy initiatives — whatever its oligarch funders demand. Yet you cite them to support your anti-public transit vendetta. I gotta say you don’t vote liberal.
@joerossm
I have no, “anti-public transit vendetta,” the light rail between the Denver airport works great and I’ve used it many times. It’s also not free, and thus not a 100% tax burden to the area residents, which is exactly what the Hop is to the city. No longer does the Poto Casino pay to cover the operations of the Hop.
Read the Badger Institute article, the Hop is a growing disaster, that needs to be shut down.
Try to not let the facts get in the way of your narrative.
AI generated: The Badger Institute is a Wisconsin-based think tank that promotes policies aligned with free-market and limited-government principles. While they present themselves as nonpartisan, their policy recommendations and affiliations suggest a conservative bias.
Sounds like the political philosophy of egoist and Ayn Rand disciples Scott Walker and Paul Ryan.