The Milwaukee County Transit System plans to add a new bus route from the north side of Milwaukee to New Berlin. The route is designed to help connect workers from the city to suburban job locations, including New Berlin industrial parks.
The plans for the proposed new route will be reviewed Wednesday, July 16, by the Milwaukee County Board’s Transportation Public Works and Transit Committee.
The funds for the new service would come from a settlement by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope and the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin. The ACLU’s lawsuit alleged that WisDOT’s $1.7 billion Zoo Interchange project failed to address the needs of people who rely on mass transit. Under the settlement agreement, WisDOT will provide $2.875 million annually, from 2014 to 2018, to create new bus routes or extend existing bus services, to help connect workers in the city to jobs in the suburbs.
The New Berlin bus route would start on Aug. 24. The cost to operate it will be $244,200 in 2014 and $689,300 in 2015. All of the funds would come from the settlement with WisDOT.
The New Berlin bus route would run along Capitol Drive on the north side of Milwaukee, then south on Highway 100, west on Bluemound Road, south on Moorland Road to just past Small Road in New Berlin.
This would be the second new city to suburbs bus route established with funds from the WisDOT settlement. Earlier this year Milwaukee County officials created a new bus route from Milwaukee’s central city to Menomonee Falls. That service is also expected to start on Aug. 24.
