The Pabst Pub hosted the public forum "Get The Facts" about the Milwaukee Streetcar Project last week. Check out what Milwaukee's City Engineer and Commissioner of Public Works had to say about what their progress.
Expect the city to change quite a bit in the next four years.
By summer 2016, the Milwaukee Streetcar should be up and running. The Pabst Pub hosted a public forum last week to give us an update on the progress and Milwaukee's City Engineer Jeff Polenske and Ghassan Korban, Commissioner of Public Works were on hand to give the facts and answer some questions.
Streetcars provide low cost transportation to the public. Most rides will cost $1 dollar and run every ten minutes during weekdays and every fifteen minutes on weekends.
Leading up to the lower East Side and down to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, the 3.5 mile system will help connect Milwaukee in new ways. The route will link downtown to other areas ofthe city which are not too accessible by bus. The Milwaukee Streetcar plans on expanding further in the future, having planned routes out to Riverwest, Marquette
University, Bayview, Mitchel Airport and Cesar Chavez.
The intial cost is estimated to be $64.6 million for the initial route. This includes construction of the basic 2 mile track, maintence facilites and the purchase of 4 streetcars. The federal government will be paying for $54.9 million of the initial route and a little over $9 million will come from local taxes.. Once the route is up and running in 2016, the annual cost will be $2.65 million.
The streetcars will also offer a clean and quiet ride for commuters. Also environmentally conscious, the streetcars hold a modern design is similar to streetcars in Portland OR and Seattle, WA.
More information on the project can be found at www.milwukeestreetcar.com.