Milwaukee — Three Downtown Streetcar Alignments Unveiled

Rail Transit Online, September 2009

City planners have developed three alternatives for a downtown streetcar circulator system that would serve major employment, transportation, entertainment and shopping centers.

All three would start at East Ogden and North Prospect Avenue in the northeast area and serve the Amtrak-Greyhound station, several sports venues and a large shopping mall at North 4th Street and West Wisconsin Avenue. The modern streetcars would provide a link from Amtrak and future Kenosha-RacineMilwaukee commuter trains to the central core.

Option 1 would utilize a north-south one-way couplet on North Van Buren and North Jackson streets, then head west on West St. Paul Avenue and north on 4th to Wisconsin. Option 2 would use Ogden and Juneau
avenues before turning south on North Water Street to St. Paul and picking up the Option 1 route to the shopping center. Option 3 would also head west on East Ogden and East Juneau avenues, then south on 4th Street to a terminal at St. Paul.

The estimated price tag is $64 million. Ten possible extensions to inner residential areas and such traffic generators as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University have been tentatively identified.

The city has a $54.5-million federal earmark for the streetcar line, which officials hope will be completed by 2014.

www.milwaukeeconnector.com/streetcar.html