Milwaukee County to get $19.1M in federal funds for express bus routes

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/newswatch/132730543.html


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Milwaukee County will get $19.1 million in federal funds to pay for three new express bus routes, the state Department of Transportation and County Executive Chris Abele announced Thursday.

Those new routes will partly replace existing local service, as part of Abele's plan to stave off deep cuts that had been recommended in other routes. Regional planners, state staffers and local advisory committees had backed the plan before it received final approval from state Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb.

Two routes will be funded by $12.7 million of the $15 million previously allocated to the now-defunct KRM Commuter Link rail plan. The remaining $2.3 million will go to Kenosha Transit for new buses.



Abele said county officials also received Gottlieb's approval to use another $6.4 million in federal funds for a third express bus route, connecting the northwest side to downtown and West Allis, largely on W. Fond du Lac and W. National avenues. That money was originally awarded to a bus rapid transit plan unsuccessfully advocated by Gov. Scott Walker when he was county executive


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This is great news for the People of Milwaukee, many of whom depend on bus service to get to and from work!


One of these routes will be Bayshore Town Center to the airport, via UW-M and downtown. The other will run from UW-M to the Waukesha County line, mostly on Capitol Drive.