Ald. Bob Bauman
Press Release

Transit system bidders will address Public Transportation Review Board

Veolia, MV Transportation to make their pitches.

By - Dec 10th, 2013 12:10 pm

Companies bidding to be the future operator of the Milwaukee County Transit System will detail their plans for improved bus service during Friday’s meeting of the Public Transportation Review Board.

Veolia Transportation and MV Transportation will each deliver presentations and answer questions when the review board meets at 9 a.m. on Friday, December 13, 2013 in room 301-B at City Hall, 200 E. Wells St.

Friday’s meeting will be televised live on the City Channel (Channel 25 on Time Warner Cable in the City of Milwaukee), and on U-Verse Channel 99. Online viewing is available by going to www.city.milwaukee.gov/Channel25.

The current MCTS operator, Milwaukee Transport Services (MTS), has also been invited to make a presentation to the board at Friday’s meeting.

Legal action has prompted Milwaukee County officials to extend the MTS operator contract – that after an internal county review group earlier this year recommended awarding the $164 million contract to Dallas-based MV Transportation.

Alderman Robert J. Bauman, chair of the review board, said the meeting will provide a unique opportunity to hear from the bidders. “Having the chance to listen to and ask questions of these companies in a public meeting is an excellent way of finding out how each plans to address our struggling bus system,” he said.

“Very simply, the system is something tens of thousands of city residents rely upon each day and is critical to the future economic wellbeing of our city,” Alderman Bauman said.

Friday’s meeting of the Public Transportation Review Board will also include an update on the ongoing court case that was brought regarding the construction of the Zoo Interchange project. Earlier this year a federal judge ruled that the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin (BHCW) and Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH) were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that state and federal transportation officials violated federal law by failing to fully evaluate the project’s environmental and related social and economic impacts.

The interchange project court action was brought on behalf of MICAH and the BHCW by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and ACLU officials are expected to address the board.

Also on Friday, the board will receive an update on the status of the city’s bikesharing system. On December 5 the project was recommended for approval on a unanimous vote of the Council’s Public Works Committee. If approved by the full Council on December 17, the project would put the city on track to launch 28 bikesharing kiosks across the city by the end of 2014.

The bike-sharing initiative is a partnership with the State of Wisconsin and the nonprofit Midwest BikeShare, and would enable Milwaukee to expand upon the single bike-sharing kiosk currently in operation near Discovery World, beginning in the central city and moving outward into other city neighborhoods.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

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