MCTS Won’t Solve Budget Woes By Making Service Worse

MCTS Bus. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is facing a $10.9 million budget deficit and their plan to close the gap is to cut back on the systems core, frequent routes. According to recent announcements, MCTS will reduce 20,000 service hours this fall, largely by scaling back off-peak and Saturday trips on its highest-frequency, most productive routes. No routes will be eliminated, but that’s hardly reassuring. Riders don’t take comfort in knowing a bus technically still exists if it now comes only a couple of times an hour.

These are not just unfortunate cuts, they’re a symptom of a deeper problem. MCTS seems more focused on preserving a map than preserving a system. There’s a difference. When the priority is to maintain geographic coverage at all costs, frequency suffers. And when frequency suffers, ridership declines. It’s a death spiral we’ve seen before.

Even more concerning is the way this budget crisis emerged. We are now halfway through the year, and the public (and even county officials) are just now learning of a $10.9 million shortfall. That’s not a routine midyear adjustment. That’s a serious governance failure, prompting the County Board to order a full audit of MCTS’s governance and oversight structure. If the agency wants to be trusted with dedicated funding, transparency and accountability must come first.

This retreat from frequency is especially troubling because it directly contradicts the vision MCTS laid out just a few years ago during the MCTS NEXT redesign. At that time, the agency committed to rebalancing the system around high-ridership corridors, improving frequency, and making transit more useful for more people. It was a bold move that recognized quality over quantity. What we’re seeing now is the opposite: a return to the old habit of doing a little bit of everything and doing none of it well.

Through MCTS NEXT, the agency conducted broad public engagement and heard clearly: riders wanted more frequent bus service. MCTS delivered—briefly. But at the first sign of financial trouble, that frequency is the first thing on the chopping block. That sends the message that public input only matters when it’s convenient.

MCTS is currently developing a three-year strategic plan, the first of its kind in decades, which may help make the case for how dedicated funding could improve transit service. But this won’t be the last financial challenge the agency faces. And if the response to this crisis is any indication, MCTS appears willing to set aside its stated values and the needs of its riders in the name of political expedience.

Transit agencies elsewhere have shown that investing in frequent, high-quality service can build both ridership and public support. When agencies concentrate resources where demand is strongest and deliver service people can rely on, they create momentum. And just as importantly, they create demand. People outside the core service area begin asking, “Why can’t we have that?” That’s how political will for expansion and investment grows—through visible success.

MCTS could follow the same path. Delivering high-quality, high-frequency service to a smaller geographic area isn’t a retreat, it’s investing in a base of support. Riders who can count on transit will become advocates for more of it. That’s how you expand service sustainably: by proving its value, not by stretching it thin.

Instead, MCTS is signaling that reliability and frequency are optional, as long as there’s a bus somewhere. That’s a mistake. Invest where people are riding. Deliver a great product. Be honest about challenges. Build trust. Then ask for more.

Zaysha Sandwick is a long time resident of the Harambee neighborhood who is passionate about transit.