Milwaukee and SE Wisconsin – Don’t Be A Transit Lemming

Transit, we all need it, we all use it (in varying ways) and in SE Wisconsin we all argue about it.  Over the last decade and a half the argument, for all intents and purposes, has been around what type of MASS transit are we going to build with the federal money we received exclusively for mass transit.  There have been multiple proposals from a multitude of people, organizations, and third party (“unbiased”) think tanks, but we are still sitting here after more than a decade with millions in the bank account.

Now, to start things off, I want to get my opinion out there so there is no ambiguity or that anyone gets the impression I have a secret agenda – I am NOT a proponent of light rail, additions to the train system, trolley cars, and the like.  I will admit that having mass transit (subways, light rail), can be convenient, but so can plexi-glass enclosed sidewalks (to avoid this horrendous cold and incessant snow), but when you stack up the costs of building, staffing, and maintaining these convenient little trains, the numbers don’t match up.  There is approximately 91 million dollars available to this area to build some sort of mass transit system, and the latest and greatest proposal being plopped on the table is the KRM (Kenosha to Racine to Milwaukee) rail line.  The advantages that are being thrown out there by the pro-transit crowd are: increased development along the rail line, it will be attached to the Chicago METRA line – furthering the line usage, and property values would go up 10%.  All of which is garbage.  There is no discernable proof that development along the lines would crop up, much less be successful (and before I get comments on Portland and other cities, please do your homework and find out the cost figures to build and sustain those lines and compare that to the increase in taxes from the so called development.  You will find there is a negative pay-back to the community as it relates to “development”).  The connection to the METRA line is a worthless argument.  Let’s take a hypothetical: I’m living in Milwaukee and I want to go to Chicago via the KMR/METRA line.  I catch the KMR line in downtown Milwaukee (I’ll say at the newly renovated Intermodal Station – still can’t stand that moniker, but oh well) and head down south.  According to the proposal I will stop at:

1. Milwaukee Southside
2. Cudahy/St. Francis
3. South Milwaukee
4. Oak Creek
5. Caledonia
6. Racine
7. Somers
8. Kenosha

NOW WE GET ON THE METRA LINE – assuming the extension goes through

1) Waukegan

2) Lake Forest

3) Highland Park

4) Braeside

5) Wilmette

6) Evanston

7) Chicago

 Whew, that’s a lot of stops for 90 mile ride.  I am sure if you’re a resident of Milwaukee, and want to commute to Chicago (or vice versa), this mode of transportation would be the best, most cost effective, timely form of transportation you could take.  What a farce.  By their own admission the 33 mile ride from Milwaukee to Kenosha (normally a 35-40 min ride would be 57 mins.  Take that ride AND the ride from Kenosha to Chicago and you have at least a 2 hour commute.  I lived in Chicago for awhile and temporarily commuted.  If you leave at the right time, your trip to downtown Chicago from Milwaukee is one and a half hours (that’s in the morning, arrival in Chicago: 7:15 am).   In this scenario your daily commute is an additional hour, 5 hours a week, 20 hours a month, etc, etc, etc. 

I could go on and on about how this plan is an absolute joke, but that is for a later post.  I wanted to finish on a recent article I read that adds just another layer of B.S. to this whole debate.  The following link is an article in the JSOnline reporting on the quotes and findings of one Tom Rubin from the libertarian think tank called The Reason Foundation.  http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/36210564.html  He says that many of the numbers the KRM support group has come up with regarding development along the rail line, rider-ship and property value increases are over-stated and that an express bus system is the better way to go.  This after a paid consulting gig from that same group caused him to all but wholeheartedly support the KRM plan.  Thanks Tom.  I’m so glad you can do such in-depth analysis on a transit issue and come up with a “solution” in June, and then come up with another “solution” trumping the one you just made 6 months ago.  This is the problem people.  Even the so called experts cannot come up with proper or agreeable conclusions to this issue, and I’m just supposed to pour 100’s of millions of taxpayer dollars into this because every other city is stupid enough to?  Yeah that’s right; I’m challenging the argument; “Well, Portland, St. Louis, Dallas, Minneapolis, and every other city is building light rail, why is Milwaukee so far behind?”  It’s the same answer I got when I was a kid and the same one I’ll give my kids and everyone reading this post: “If your group of friends jumped off a bridge, would you?”  Light rail and the experts (a loose term mind you) that consult, lobby, and support it are a joke.  Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and all other SE Wisconsin residents, do not follow that lemming in front of you off the financial cliff, you’ll regret it.