Public transportation is an essential part of any major city, but for years, transit in Milwaukee has been suffering. Declining ridership and budget issues have left the system fighting for its survival and a looming fiscal cliff may mean the end of the system as we know it. The issues — and possible solutions — are detailed in a new report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
According to Wisconsin Policy Forum president Rob Henken, the looming issues have been long approaching.
"MCTS's ridership has been on a pretty severe decline even before the pandemic, going out three or four years before the pandemic due to a variety of societal factors," Henken says. "Obviously, ridership then plummeted at the height of the pandemic, and it has yet to fully rebound and is not expected to come close to fully rebounding in the near future. Passenger revenue is the second largest source of revenue for the transit system. So, that's certainly a big problem."
The full report is available here.
_
