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Date: Tue, 04 May 2010 23:30:24 -0000
Subject: Electric railways, streetcars, interurbans, trams, light rail
	lines and trolley buses worldwide. City officials announce Downtown
	Milwaukee streetcar route.
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City officials have reduced the three options for a Downtown Milwaukee stre=
etcar route =96 presented at a public meeting in October =96to a single pla=
n recently obtained by NewsBuzz under a federal records request. The photo =
is posted here.

While similar to the options released previously, the route described in th=
e February grant application released by the U.S. Department of Transportat=
ion follows none of them exactly. Milwaukee's half-dozen streetcars would b=
e electric, share a lane of traffic with cars and stop at numerous small st=
ations.

The primary Downtown Streetcar Circulator route, to be built using federal =
money already awarded to the city, would run from the Downtown Intermodal S=
tation east along St. Paul Avenue then north on Broadway Street until Wells=
 Street, where it would turn east again. Streetcars would run north and sou=
th from Wells Street to Ogden Avenue by Jackson and Van Buren streets.

The application (large PDF) seeks additional federal funding from DOT's Urb=
an Circulator Grant Program, which is awarding up to $25 million to cities =
out of a total of $130 million in funding to improve bus and rail systems. =
The city would use the boost in funding to extend the primary route at both=
 ends.

One extension would run from the Intermodal Station north on Fourth Street =
to Juneau Avenue, where it would turn west and end near the Brewery Project=
. The other extension would run from the eastern end of Ogden Avenue in a l=
oop on Farwell and Prospect Avenues, turning around at East Royall Place.

Largely due to public input, the route has changed considerably since early=
 2009, when it ran in a circle around the center of downtown.

City officials are still finalizing proposed plans for the streetcar projec=
t, according to DPW spokeswoman Cecilia Gilbert. The plans to be submitted =
to DOT, called a locally preferred alternative, "will be rolled out very so=
on," she says. "In order to meet federal guidelines, the (grant) applicatio=
n was submitted on February 15 of this year before the LPA was final."

Some plans have changed since February, Gilbert says. In the grant applicat=
ion, service was scheduled to begin in November 2012. Project dates have ch=
anged, she says without specifying.

Downtown Ald. Bob Bauman, a former transportation consultant, says city off=
icials lowered estimates of the streetcar line's operating costs from initi=
al projections and settled on a fare price of $1 after deciding a free-fare=
 system wasn't economically feasible.

Ridership with a $1 fare, given the construction of both the primary route =
and the two extensions, is estimated at 3,830 riders a day in 2015 and 4,55=
9 by 2030 in the grant application. Ridership estimates for a no-fare syste=
m are 6,412 and 7,729, respectively.

In February, operating costs for the primary route were estimated at $2.9 m=
illion a year. The Fourth Street and Prospect/Farwell extensions were estim=
ated to cost another $1.7 million a year.

In February, the primary route was expected to cost about $64 million to co=
nstruct, mostly funded by $55 million in federal funding awarded in 2009. T=
he rest would come from local sources. The two extensions were expected to =
cost a total of $31.5 million to build, funded by the $25 million grant the=
 city is seeking and supplemented by local sources.

Development expected

Bauman says a rail system is more expensive to expand than a bus one, "but =
the return on that investment is much higher" than the return on the expans=
ion of a bus system. The Circulator is "primarily an economic development t=
ool," he says, since developers are much more likely to invest in propertie=
s if a light rail line passes nearby.

DOT, under the Obama Administration, supports using rail lines to spur prog=
ress in under-developed areas, according to Bauman. The proposed Fourth Str=
eet extension would provide service to the Park East area, a section of Dow=
ntown the Department of City Development has targeted for redevelopment as =
well as the ongoing Brewery Project at the site of the former Pabst Brewery=
.

The extended line would also reach several city housing developments, inclu=
ding Hillside, a 470-unit neighborhood near the Brewery Project.

"This is sort of exhibit A in the changing priorities of federal transporta=
tion investment," Bauman says.


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