As regular readers here already know, the Milwaukee County Transit System is going to have several cuts in service as per the Milwaukee County Budget.
This is how Scott Walker celebrates 150 years of public transit in Milwaukee.
On and after January 2, 2011 , three routes will be gone completely, two routes will be slightly modified to compensate for two of the route eliminations and thirteen routes will have Saturday service and frequency reductions to match Sunday/Holiday schedules.
Download a list of all the 2010-2011 Milwaukee County Transit System cuts here.
Download the announcement for the eliminated routes here.
“While it is difficult to reduce service frequency and eliminate flyer routes, these changes will help to maintain the mainline system which is so vital to the community,” stated Anita Gulotta-Connelly, MCTS Managing Director. With all due respect to Mrs. Gulotta-Connelly, as we understand that she has a tough job trying to maintain a viable transit system in the face of a broken funding system, we can’t see this as anything but an attack on the mainline system. Saturday service will be sharply reduced on mainline routes, like the 10, 11, 12, 14 35 and 80 just to name a few routes. (See above PDF for all routes affected.) These routes are core routes where passengers often suffer overcrowded buses.
We can expect to see even more overcrowding on routes 10, 12, 14, 35 and 80 as these are busy and long routes. We can also expect more late buses as there will be more stopping of these buses since there will be more passengers getting on and off. We want to remind our members and other riders not to automatically blame the drivers. They are as much victims of this as we are, since they are seeing yet another degradation of their work environment. A lot of times these schedules are flawed and do not take these increased stops into account. The result of that is a bus schedule that is impossible to make and may not get corrected for a few months. Please be patient with the drivers as they are not to blame for the cuts and they do not determine the routes.
If you want to complain about these cuts, constructive ways to do so is to fill out the form on the announcement and mail it in, or call your county supervisor. You can find out who he/she is here, or you can type your address into this form to find out your county supervisory district. You can also complain to Scott Walker, who is the man who insisted that Milwaukee County Transit had to be cut.
Scott Walker can be reached many ways:
- By email at: countyexec@milwcnty.com
- By mail at: County Executive Scott Walker, 901 N. 9th St., Milwaukee County Courthouse Room 306, Milwaukee, WI 53233-1458
- By phone at: (414) 278-4211
- By fax at: (414) 223-1375
Alternatively, you can contact Scott Walker’s transition office as he is due to resign his County Executive post soon. The website for the transition site is www.transition.wi.gov. You can contact his transition office many ways:
- By using the Citizen Suggestion form at: http://www.transition.wi.gov/stateemployee_suggestion.asp?locid=177.
- By email at: transition@wisconsin.gov.
- By mail at: Office of the Governor-Elect Scott Walker, 17 W. Main St. Suite 310, Madison, WI 53703
The Milwaukee Transit Riders Union expects there to be a funding crisis in 2011. This crisis was delayed by the stimulus, but not solved. Check back here for updates and consider joining.