Officials mull transit options to connect public with jobs

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To make sure southeastern Wisconsin remains a strong economic competitor, business and political leaders are expanding bus routes and turning to other forms of public transportation in their latest attempts to ensure residents have little trouble getting to and from jobs.

A continuing dearth of regional transit options was the main of topic of discussion Wednesday at a forum about ensuring the public has easy ways to get to workplaces in southeastern Wisconsin. The regional transportation group MetroGo! invited business and community leaders to discuss the Milwaukee region’s ability to compete economically, especially in a time of reductions in public transportation.

Among the panelists and speakers were Mike Fabishak, president of the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee; Dennis Winters, chief economist at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development; Brian Dranzik, director of the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation; and Steve Scaffidi, mayor of Oak Creek.

“We certainly have to build a broader and much denser transportation network,” Winters said. “Not only from the cities to the suburbs and back, but through the suburbs as well, so we can cross those rings, because I don’t see a whole lot of people moving back downtown and into downtown areas.”

On Monday, Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and Supervisors Theo Lipscomb Sr. and Patricia Jursik traveled on newly expanded bus routes they had advocated for inclusion in the county’s 2015 budget. Buses began running on the expanded routes on March 22. Route 80 now has its southern terminus at Puetz Road in Oak Creek, while the new 276 route runs through Brown Deer Plaza. Buses also began running on Route 6, a new line to New Berlin, and Route 279, to the Menomonee Falls Industrial Park, in August.

But of four new bus routes created last year to connect workers to suburban employers, three will have no funding source after 2018. The routes now draw money from the proceeds of a lawsuit filed over the ongoing reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange, west of Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, the general outlook for transit projects is mixed. The total miles traveled by public buses has decreased by 22 percent in southeastern Wisconsin in the past 15 years. The decrease means 1,324 fewer employers can be reached by transit, leaving 13 percent of the households in Milwaukee and 10 percent in the region that do not have a car with practically no way of getting to certain workplaces.

Even though national trends suggest young people are driving less than members of previous generations, government’s gradual move away from transit is expected to continue. A recently announced redevelopment plan for Interstate 94, for example, does not accommodate an expansion of bus services. And an $810 million high-speed rail project between Milwaukee and Madison was nixed by federal officials in 2010.

Another panelist at Wednesday’s forum, Dan Andres, human resources manager for FedEx SmartPost in New Berlin, said he hires roughly 400 to 450 new workers a year. Until recently, he said, a lack of public transit made recruiting those employees more difficult.

During the Christmas season, employment at the FedEx warehouse increases by between 500 and 600. The site now has no parking for the additional workers.

An attempt to build more space for parking was denied by the city. Even so, after a new bus service recently began running nearby, Andres received about 100 more job applications than usual.

Despite the trend away from transit, a few potential bright spots are on the horizon. Last month, the Milwaukee Common Council approved a $124 million, 2-mile downtown streetcar project, and left open the possibility of extensions in later years. And a group of real estate developers and investors are pushing for a regional rail system that would lease existing rail lines. The group behind the proposal, known as the B-line, is currently in negotiations with rail companies and hopes to announce the details of its plan in coming weeks. Follow @MatthewTaub1