MCTS Plans 15% Service Cut

MCTS Gillig bus. Photo by taken March 19, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is planning major changes next year with a 15% cut to service. In addition to eliminating six routes, the system will likely cut an on-demand car service for persons with disabilities and slow bus frequency on 22 routes.

In September, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley released his proposed 2026 budget. It included cuts to bus service and an increase in bus fares from $2 to $2.75 and daily cap from $5 to $8.25 to close a $14 million gap in the MCTS budget.

During a budget meeting with the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Finance Monday, MCTS announced plans to cut an on-demand paratransit ride service. The program was created as a pilot in 2024 with a $1.2 million budget. MCTS contracted with Via, a New York-based transportation company, to provide on-demand rides with wheelchair accessible vehicles. The county subsidized approximately 90% of the cost of the service, and riders paid a $10 fare. It would cost $1.9 million to continue the program next year, according to MCTS.

“We would love to continue the same-day pilot program. However, given our financial constraints, we had to make very hard decisions maintaining that service,” said MCTS President and CEO Steve Fuentes. Maintaining the service would require deeper cuts to bus service, he said.

TransitPlus, the name of MCTS’ paratransit system, requires passengers to schedule rides 24 hours ahead. The same-day, on-demand service was created to provide rides for unexpected trips. It replaced a taxi service that fell out of compliance with federal regulations. Sandy Kellner, MCTS chief administrative officer, said the system would continue to work with paratransit advocates to find a solution to same-day paratransit needs.

MCTS plans to cut six routes and shorten five routes to help balance the budget next year. During the budget meeting Monday, MCTS also announced it was increasing the number of routes that would have bus frequency lowered. In total, 22 routes would see the frequency of bus service reduced in 2026.

In 2021, MCTS redesigned its system to favor high-frequency routes. The routes are the system’s “bread and butter” and account for a majority of ridership, or more than 70%, according to Jesus Ochoa, MCTS director of service development. The routes targeted for cuts are the system’s lowest ridership routes.

Though low ridership does not mean no ridership. Supervisor Justin Bielinski announced during the meeting that he plans to seek funding to save Route 28, which runs through his district in West Allis. Route 28 sees approximately 890 riders per day during weekdays. Sup. Sequanna Taylor said 890 riders per day didn’t sound low to her. Ochoa noted that Route 30, the most heavily used route in the system, sees approximately 8,500 riders per day.

Sup. Shawn Rolland questioned how MCTS was evaluating the second-order impacts of the cuts, like overloaded buses, as ridership is pushed to other routes.

The system should be able to react quickly to any service challenges that occur as a result of the cuts, Fuentes said.

“And what we’re going to do is, once the final budget is adopted and we know exactly what routes are going to be eliminated, modified or reduced frequency, we’re going to watch those numbers,” he said. “And if we are seeing crush loads, we do have the ability to put some extra service out there.”

MCTS was forced to put together a “reactive budget” trying to balance ridership and revenue, Fuentes said.

“We had to react to a lot of stuff that happened over the summer, unfortunately, and we had to do it quickly,” he said. “I would love to put out a proactive budget that is much more in line with what is best for Milwaukee County. I didn’t have the time to do that for this particular budget season.”

Stimulus funding runs out

During the COVID-19 pandemic, MCTS received approximately $192 million in federal stimulus funding, to plug gaps in the system’s budget. The funds were expected to last into 2027, but an unexpected budget deficit in 2025 caused the system to spend down more stimulus funding than previously planned. MCTS is using all remaining funding to close the 2026 budget gap.

“The problems that we saw at MCTS over the summer with the projected $10.9 million budget deficit was not a problem of overspending. It was not a problem of employee salaries being too high or anything like that,” said Fuentes, who took over as president and CEO in August. “It was, the budget was overly optimistic that was put out last year by the former CFO and former leadership of MCTS.”

The budget gap was always looming. The system costs more to operate than MCTS receives in annual revenue from state, federal and local funding sources, as well as from fares. For more than a decade, state mass transit operating aids, which are the largest source of funding, have declined or been frozen. Meanwhile, annual inflation has raised the cost of operation.

Should county raise vehicle registration fee?

Sup. Rolland raised the prospect of increasing the county vehicle registration fee (VRF), often referred to as the wheel tax, to fund transit. The current VRF is $30 per vehicle and is projected to generate approximately $17 million in revenue in 2026.

“We’ve talked about how state support for public transit has been flat forever, and that continues to be an issue. I would also say that the wheel tax has been flat since 2017 and since then inflation has gone up by 32%,” Rolland said. 

The supervisor suggested pegging VRF increases to the rate of inflation.

“Because if state support remains flat and county support doesn’t keep pace with inflation, we’re just as guilty as the state for not funding the bus system enough,” Rolland said.

Proposed 2026 frequency reductions

Monday through Friday – Routes 11, 12, 14, 22, 31, 51, 53, 57, 60, 63, 80, 88 and Connect 1

Saturday – Routes 11, 18, 19, 21, 24, 31, 59, 74, 80, 88, GreenLine, PurpleLine and RedLine

Sunday – Routes 11, 24, 31, 59, 74, 80 and 88.