Officials at Southridge mall have issued a demand to the Milwaukee County Transit System to stay off the mall property starting the first of November.

Bus riders will be forced to walk the length of a city block through Southridge’s parking lot to get to the nearest entrance. Buses would pick up, drop off and layover at the Southridge Park & Ride Lot, where the Route 46 Loomis-Southridge Flyer currently stops. This change will take place on Friday November 1.

The move that Southridge is forcing would put undue burdens on persons with disabilities and seniors. The move would also jeopardize the safety of all bus riders, who would have to walk across a busy parking lot to get to and from the new bus stop.

Stay tuned for action(s) to oppose this move. In the meantime, if you want to contact officials with your opinions of this move, feel free to do so. We recommend keeping your comments respectful and concise.

Milwaukee County Board

Milwaukee County Office for Persons w/ Disabilities
Don Natzke, Director
901 N. 9th St. Room 307-B
Milwaukee, WI 53233
http://county.milwaukee.gov/OPD

Milwaukee Transport Services, the current operator of the bus system, has filed a lawsuit in order to get more information regarding the secretive bidding process being undertaken to award a contract to manage the bus system.

MTS, the non-profit has run the bus system for 38 years and has been twice awarded for good management was passed over in favor of MV Transportation, an out-of-state for-profit company with a spotty performance record.

MTS is seeking the reasons why MV was selected and a halt on secret contract negotiations between MV Transportation and Milwaukee County.

Milwaukee County officials announced yesterday that MV Transportation, a Texas-based, for-profit company to manage the Milwaukee County Transit System.

This is a big change from the status-quo, currently the bus system is run by Milwaukee Transport Services, Inc., a non-profit organization created in 1975 to run the bus system.

This will take MCTS further down the road of privatization. MCTS has operated like a non-profit or government organization up until now. If the contract is approved it will go into effect January 1, 2014; at that point MCTS will start operating like a for-profit business and try to turn a profit off of our fares.

What does this mean for Milwaukee bus riders?
Privatization often means paying less for more. Milwaukee bus riders have been somewhat insulated from this by a provision in the request for proposals, but we still have several concerns:

• Passenger amenities MCTS has, in recent years, has attempted to add amenities to the bus system and make it more enjoyable to ride. Privatization and the profit motive exerts downward pressure on the budget for amenities and capital improvements – making transit much less pleasant to ride… even making it downright unpleasant to ride.
• Employees’ working conditions While many riders don’t realize it, the working conditions for transit employees do affect us. We benefit from having a bus system that can attract good, polite drivers and attentive maintenance workers. Profit-driven transit results in declining working conditions for transit employees, which puts us directly at risk of being involved in accidents and degrades the quality of our rides.
• Service Cuts The concerns listed above contribute to a negative perception of public transportation and make it less attractive as a travel option to people who have other options. This will result in less people riding the bus, which will result in less revenue and more cuts to service.

As a result, we stand against this and other proposals to privatize our system.

The City of Waukesha, which operates the Waukesha Metro Transit system has approved changes to two of it’s routes.

Waukesha Metro operates 11 routes and sub-contracts the 900-series Wisconsin Coach routes into Downtown. Buses typically run every 60 minutes, with some a couple of routes running every 30 minutes. It is a very basic service with only one connection to the Milwaukee County Transit System: Waukesha Route 1.

The changes will be happening to Waukesha Routes 1 and 2 and will take effect on July 1st.

Waukesha Route 1
The loop on Brookfield Road and Corporate Drive will be eliminated.
Waukesha Route 1 will continue to connect with Route 10.

Waukesha Route 2
The rush-hour only section between Target/Kossow Rd and Goerkes Corners Park & Ride will be eliminated.

Waukesha Route 2 will also be slightly modified to stop at the new Woodman’s store on Main Street in Waukesha.

Early on Wednesday morning, at the end of the final meeting that the Joint Finance Committee was having on the budget a large motion was passed including a provision keeping transit in the transportation fund.

While transit will be staying in the transportation fund, the 4% restoration will be shifted to 2015. This is problematic for Milwaukee bus riders, since the one time grants propping up service will expire in the beginning of 2014.

You can read the full wrap-up motion here.

Federally Assisted Transit Projects for Milwaukee in 2013
The Transportation, Public Works & Transit Committee of the Milwaukee County Board met today and discussed several federally assisted transit projects, including:

• Software for an upcoming Real Time Passenger Information system that will provide real-time bus arrival times to riders.
• An expansion of driver shields. Transit system officials have the goal of every bus having a shield by the end of 2013. The new buses coming to Milwaukee streets this year will come with shields equipped. These shields are different from the all clear plexiglas one we are used to, they will have a metal lower portion and a plexiglas upper.
• About $15 million in bus maintenance, $12 million of which will come from the Feds.

To see a list of all the Federally-assisted transit projects for 2013, click here.

Civil Rights Policies
Also discussed by the Committee today was how the Milwaukee County Transit System will implement new civil rights policies mandated by the Federal government.

These new requirements are great for us, the riders. Among other things they push for more public involvement in decision making on routes and fares.

The Feds are requiring the bus system to create a formal Public Participation Plan. According to the informational report presented at today’s meeting, the bus system hopes to have had two meetings by fall of this year.

We will keep you posted on the dates, times and locations of these meetings as we get the information. These meetings will be a good opportunity for average bus riders to be heard. We hope that these meetings will be held at locations and times of the day that work for most bus riders, particularly people of color and people with limited English proficiency who we believe need more inclusion into the planning process.

Bus riders must not let their guard down in the wake of a partial victory. We are not out of the woods yet.

Call your legislators and let them know how important transit is to you. You can call toll free hotline at 1-800-362-9472.

The Joint Finance Committee is not the last stop in the budget process. The 4% may be changed or even lost entirely in the weeks ahead unless bus riders speak up.

Yesterday the Joint Finance Committee took up Amendment 431 to the State Budget. This amendment, also known as the Transportation Omnibus, closed the $63 million deficit for 2015 and included some benefits to transit riders:

• 4% of the 10% annual cut in State transit aid has been restored.
• Transit will still be removed from the transportation fund in 2015, but only for a one year period.

What the second point means remains to be seen. Keep reaching out to your elected officials and let them know how important transit is!

Other details of the transportation omnibus:

• Delay $14 million in spending on the Zoo Interchange until the 2015-2017 budget.
• Delay $19 million in spending on the Ryan Road/I-94 exit until the 2015-2017 budget.
• Cut $12 million from repairing State highways.
• Cut $10 million from the Hoan Bridge project.
• Cut $7.3 million in major highway development funding.
• Cut $2.5 million from routine highway maintenance.
• Shift $900,000 from an air quality program to one for repairing highways.