Milwaukee Joining Push for Commuter Rail Line

Route map of the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail line. Image from New Starts grant application.

The KRM is back, though the letters are now scrambled.

The City of Milwaukee is poised to join the Milwaukee Area-Racine-Kenosha Passenger Rail Commission (MARK). The new entity is being created to revive plans for the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail line.

“What this would establish is a commission that could then apply for what’s then called Corridor ID from the federal government, which then puts us in line for federal funding that is available that would establish this rail line,” said Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee deputy director Dave Misky to the Public Works Committee Wednesday morning.

The Common Council in each of the three largest cities on the route is now formally approving a cooperation agreement to finalize an updated plan for the line.

“All of the mayors are very excited about the opportunity to apply for this grant,” said Misky of Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Kenosha Mayor David Bogdala. Each endorsed the idea in an August press release.

The 33-mile line would follow the lakefront from the Chicago-focused Metra station in Kenosha north to downtown Milwaukee, linking several south suburban communities with a 53-minute end-to-end trip.

With support from U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Racine received a $5 million federal planning grant in 2022 to restart the planning effort. The City of Milwaukee, said Misky, has been involved in that effort. The council endorsed its participation in late 2024.

The KRM project was first studied in the late 1990s, with a preferred route and configuration identified in 2006. In 2009, the Democratic-controlled Wisconsin State Legislature granted a regional transit authority (RTA) responsible for the project the ability to levy an up to $18 rental car tax to fund the KRM’s operations. In 2010, the RTA applied for federal support to undertake engineering work on a project estimated to cost $233 million.

But Republicans took control of the Legislature and, with Representative Robin Vos leading the way, killed the proposal in 2011. Vos, who represents southern Racine County and is now the Assembly Speaker, had switched from supporting initial funding to opposing the project’s operational funding.

An $18 million federal grant to fund the KRM’s initial operating costs was redirected to bus systems in Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee counties. The $1.2 million remaining from an initial $2 rental car tax was split between the counties.

Compared to the inland Amtrak Hiawatha Service line, the KRM service would stop more frequently and operate at lower speeds. A total of 14 round trips per day were contemplated in the 2006 plan.

“It’s so interesting seeing this come back,” said Public Works Committee Chair Milele A. Coggs. The alderwoman, in office since 2008, said she remembers the proposal being discussed when she was a county board aide.

The committee unanimously endorsed the resolution. The full council could approve it in two weeks.

The lakefront line would operate on freight tracks owned by Union Pacific. It would cross over onto tracks owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, which feed into the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, near E. Greenfield Avenue in the Harbor District. A subsidy agreement for Komatsu Mining‘s South Harbor Campus development included a purchase option for Milwaukee to acquire land near the site for a station.

The KRM line is called for in the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission Vision 2050 plan and the State of Wisconsin‘s 2050 rail plan.

Misky said the mayor would be able to appoint three members to the MARK commission.

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