MTU holding "Talking Transit" event on December 14

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LA CROSSE, Wis. (WXOW) - People with questions about La Crosse's bus transportation system can get them answered at an event late Thursday afternoon. 

Representatives from the La Crosse MTU are holding a special "Talking Transit" meeting at the Southside Neighborhood Center at 1300 S. 6th Street from 5:30-7 p.m. on December 14. 

It is an opportunity for users and members of the public to come and ask questions about routes, bus stops, mobility and paratransit information. 

Feel Good Friday: Tina Deetz is helping the riders and drivers of Eau Claire Transit

by: Daniel Gomez

Posted: Dec 3, 2024 / 02:04 PM CUpdated: Dec 3, 2024 / 02:04 PM CSHARE

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – With the darker nights and colder temperatures, Winter can make the ride to and from work a little tricky. No one is more aware of that than the hundreds of people that utilize Eau Claire Transit. First News at Nine’s Daniel Gomez is sharing how one of the supervisors is helping riders and drivers alike.

Morning and evening routines are harder to set in the winter when your time revolves around the bus schedule. Tina Deetz is a supervisor with Eau Claire Transit and she says, “Once in a while, the bus driver will have to call in that they almost pass up a person at a bus stop because they couldn’t see them.”

Driver Even Figg adds, “I was driving at the crack of dawn, and it was dark out. Someone was wearing all black. They had to for work, and, I almost missed them because they were standing a little off from the street. As they should.

Deetz says there are more well-lit stops than not but leaving any rider in the dark doesn’t sit right with her. “Well, we handed out about 100 of these little bus flashlights, they’re really cute.”

The small lights are part of a “Be Seen, Be Safe” campaign. It’s to encourage more riders to flash their phones. Wear reflective gear. Anything to help bus drivers see them. Figg says, “Those little key chains, I have seen plenty of those around. They work very well. It’s just a tiny light, but that small light really alerts us.”

Daniel Kasten rides the route to Altoona. He explains, “We got a streetlight in a general area but that area is kind of dark. There’s no shelter there, nothing.”

In addition to the key chains, riders were also given hats so they could stay warm while waiting for the bus. Kasten says, “I think that’s a really good idea. And the fact that they are marketing themselves that way to the public, I think that’s a really really good idea. I come from Milwaukee and their transit system is much bigger and they don’t have time for that kind of stuff.”

Deetz adds, “Transit does have a marketing budget. And this is something we like to do just to make people aware that Eau Claire transit is here. It’s nice just to be out with the public. When you come down to the transfer center and get to talk to the passengers, you really know what a good public service you’re offering here for the City of Eau Claire.”

A heartwarming gesture, to keep Eau Claire moving this Winter. In Eau Claire. Deetz says she plans to hand out more winter hats in the future. Although there are no more key chain flashlights, she says if there are safety concerns at a bus stop those are brought up to a safety committee to explore possible ways to address concerns.

FTA makes $10 million available in Bus Safety and Accessibility Research Program grants

Nov. 20, 2024

The funding will allow awardees to design and develop prototypes to make existing and new buses safer for operators, riders and vulnerable road users, as well as more accessible for passengers.

Related To: Federal Transit Administration (FTA)

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for $10 million in grant funding through its Bus Safety and Accessibility Research Program to design and develop prototypes to make existing and new buses safer for operators, riders and vulnerable road users, as well as more accessible for passengers. 

FTA notes the program’s key focus areas are:   

• Driver safety systems: Changes made to the transit vehicle and technology upgrades that protect the operator and enhance the safety of those outside of the vehicle, including vulnerable road users. 
• Passenger safety systems: Changes made to the transit vehicle and technology upgrades that protect and increase accessibility for passengers. 

FTA says the design project solicited by the NOFO must address bus operator health and safety, transit vehicle safety and accessibility and provide a foundation for transformative bus systems and designs that enhance safety.  

The project builds on previous research, including FTA’s Bus Operator Compartment Redesign Program, and the Transportation Cooperative Research Program’s Report 249, “Bus Operator Barrier Design: Guidelines and Considerations.”   

Applications for the funding are due Jan. 17, 2025. 

MCTS Hosts Career Fair on December 11

Over One Hundred Positions Will Be Available Throughout 2025

By Milwaukee County Transit System - Dec 2nd, 2024 09:00 am

MILWAUKEE (December 2, 2024) — Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is hiring for 100 open positions, including bus operators, safety officers, diesel mechanics, electronic technicians, and bus fuelers/detailers over the course of 2025. People from across Wisconsin are invited to attend the MCTS Career Fair on Wednesday, December 11, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Staff will be on hand at the MCTS Administration Building on 1942 N. 17th Street, to answer questions about these positions and to assist with filling out applications.

MCTS Employment Manager Tiffany Moore said, “We have many entry-level opportunities that offer a career path to advanced positions such as garage supervisors, instructors, customer service representatives, route supervisors, and director roles. Many leaders at MCTS, including executives, began their careers in roles like these, showing the tremendous opportunities for growth and advancement within our organization.”

WHAT: MCTS’s Career Fair is an exciting opportunity to explore a rewarding and family-sustaining career at MCTS.

WHO: Whether you are a recent high school or college graduate or looking to make a career change, this event is the perfect place to explore one of our open positions. Current staff come from Milwaukee as well as Kenosha, Waukesha and other counties.

WHEN:  Wednesday, December 11, 2024, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: Milwaukee County Transit System Administration Office, 1942 N. 17th Street, Milwaukee. Plenty of free visitor parking available in front of the building.

Said Moore, “We invite everyone to discover our new positions, such as public safety officers or electronic technicians, and more. This is a unique opportunity for people across Wisconsin to learn how to take their careers to the next level.”

To see a complete list of job descriptions, please visit RideMCTS.com/Careers for more information or to register to attend.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

Mentioned in This Press Release

Buildings: MCTS Administration Building

Government: Milwaukee County Transit System

Kenosha Partners with Amazon on Express Bus Route Compensation

Kenosha, WI (WLIP)– The City of Kenosha and Amazon have entered into a funding agreement for an express bus route from downtown Kenosha to Amazon’s fulfillment center.

The one-year agreement, which can be extended for up to three additional one-year terms, will provide transit service funding to maintain the express route.

Amazon will contribute $78,0000 toward the projected $120,000 annual cost of the service.

The agreement outlines the service schedule, which includes morning and afternoon trips Monday through Friday, excluding major holidays.

The lone no vote against the measure was 16th District Alderman Dominic Ruffalo who says it’s unfair for taxpayers to foot the bill.

City Administrator John Morrissey says he feels the deal will save taxpayers money as they would be on the hook for the full amount without the agreement.

The route will run from Kenosha’s Transit Center to the Amazon Fulfillment Center, with no fares charged for Amazon’s 3,000 full-time employees at the Kenosha facility.

WI: Chippewa Valley officials push for passenger rail service

Oct. 30, 2024

The Chippewa Valley is pushing for a new railway line to come through Eau Claire and connect the city of 70,000 in western Wisconsin to other passenger rail stops in the upper Midwest.

By Audrey Korte

Source The Chippewa Herald, Chippewa Falls, Wisc. (TNS)

The Chippewa Valley is pushing for a new railway line to come through Eau Claire and connect the city of 70,000 in western Wisconsin to other passenger rail stops in the upper Midwest.

If that happens the carrier will not necessarily be Amtrak, according to state transportation officials.

Wisconsin Department of Transportation Assistant Deputy Secretary Joel Nilsestuen said Friday that Wisconsin is seeing exciting development with passenger rail travel and he expects that will continue.

'Lot of demand'

Chippewa Valley leaders want in on that action.

"I think there is a lot of demand for passenger rail service, and to that end, we are looking at studying corridors to expand service from Chicago to Milwaukee, from Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire to the Twin Cities," Nilsestuen said Friday at a transportation themed event for the Chippewa Valley.

Area leaders have pushed for rail service for more than three decades, according to Scott Rogers.

Rogers is Vice President of Governmental Affairs at the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce. But he's also the chair of the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition and a commissioner with the Chippewa- St. Croix Rail Commission as well as Wisconsin's private sector commissioner on the 8-state Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission.

"In May, we announced the first passenger rail expansion in 22 years with new service from the Twin Cities to Chicago, with the Borealis service," Nilsestuen said. "There's been incredible need, or demonstrated need."

With the success of Amtrak's Borealis, Eau Claire and surrounding communities are reinvested in a rail proposal.

A group of a few dozen Chippewa Valley residents seeking to better understand transit plans in the area turned out for a rundown of major transit issues and projects in the region on Friday. The Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce event took place at the Chippewa Valley Technical College Business Education Center.

Talks included details of road and bridge projects in the region, parking structures and a proposed transportation center in Eau Claire, airline contracts and airport plans at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport and the potential creation of passenger railway lines connecting Eau Claire to major cities in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota.

In addition to Nilsestuen panelists included Scott Rogers, Vice President Governmental Affairs at the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce; Charity Zich, Chippewa Valley Regional Airport; Debby Jackson, Executive Director of the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin; Ty Fadness, Transit Manager for Eau Claire Transit; and Dave Solberg, Eau Claire Deputy City Manager.

Amtrak's Borealis

Amtrak's Borealis train made its first eastbound and westbound trips between St. Paul and Chicago in May.

"We announced that we surpassed 100,000 riders for that service, and we hit that mark much sooner than our projections anticipated," Nilsestuen said.

The state-sponsored Borealis rail line includes eight stops in Wisconsin, including La Crosse, Tomah, Wisconsin Dells, Portage, Columbus, Milwaukee, the Milwaukee airport and Sturtevant.

It also features three Minnesota stops in Winona, Red Wing and St. Paul at Union Depot.

The Borealis route uses the same track in Wisconsin and Minnesota as the Empire Builder, which continues from the Twin Cities to Portland and Seattle.

Wisconsin worked with the transportation departments in Minnesota and Illinois and contributed nearly $1 million to fund the Borealis route.

Gov. Tony Evers said in May that he would push for new passenger rail lines to Eau Claire, Madison and Green Bay.

With the passage of the federal infrastructure bill in 2021, money became available to study expansion of passenger rail lines across the United States, Rogers said.

In December 2023, The Federal Rail Administration approved grants for many of these projects, including three projects that would bring passenger trains back to Eau Claire, Menomonie, Baldwin and other communities.

"We are now in the process of conducting those studies, with hopes of getting trains rolling by 2029," the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition reports.

New funds available

Rogers said while he is glad to see the Borealis up and running he understands people's frustration about how long it took to get going.

"Why is it taking 22 years to put one train on an existing route? A lot of that is that there was no federal program like there is with other transportation modes with 80-90% or even higher federal funds."

That changed with the bipartisan infrastructure law, he said.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as enacted in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, authorizes up to $108 billion for public transportation — the largest federal investment in public transportation in the nation's history, according to the Federal Transit Administration.

"It also created $66 billion of that in advance appropriations for development and enhancement of existing corridors," Rogers said. "And FRA came out with a program or a pipeline that states and communities could apply to be in."

The Federal Railroad Administration put out the opportunity to apply for this program in the spring of 2023. That year multiple rail corridors across the country were selected for the program, including two that go through Eau Claire, Rogers said.

"Once you're in the pipeline, you can move forward with your project," he said. "We were successful at doing that, but just being on the map doesn't get you a train."

Eau Claire connections

There are ongoing discussions of connecting Eau Claire to Green Bay with one project and Eau Claire to the Twin Cities with another.

Rogers said the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition has been working on rail service to the region since 1999, leading the effort to re-establish passenger rail service through west-central Wisconsin.

"Part of our plan is to look at things like shuttles to Eau Claire, Rochester and Madison. So that may be the first opportunity we'll have to buy a ticket to Milwaukee or Chicago, where you would buy a ticket, you get on a shuttle in Eau Claire, it would take you to Tomah," Rogers said. "You get right on the train and go to Milwaukee or Chicago."

The Chippewa- St. Croix Rail Commission received a grant to work on a regional corridor between Eau Claire and the Twin Cities, Rogers said.

"There are a few things about that corridor that are unique among all the 69 corridors that were awarded," he said.

One is officials seek a competitive process for selecting the operator.

"So there's not an assumption that it will be Amtrak," he said. "In fact, there are private operators who do contract operations for commuter lines and others who are interested in doing the service, and we wanted to investigate that."

Union Pacific is interested in the region, he said.

" Union Pacific is very positive about having passenger service on its line," he said. "We wanted to investigate that as well."

Rogers said he got an update from the commission meeting this week about the Eau Claire corridor identification program.

"The consultant has been hired to take forward the first step of the program," he said.

___
(c)2024 The Chippewa Herald, Chippewa Falls, Wisc.
Visit The Chippewa Herald, Chippewa Falls, Wisc. at www.chippewa.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Door County transportation offerings on pace for ridership record

Posted Monday Morning by Tim Kowols

If you rely on Door 2 Door Rides or Door County Connect to get around the area, you are certainly not alone this year. The two services are on track to eclipse 47,000 rides this year, potentially more than last year’s 45,300. Transportation Manager Pam Busch credits the services’ shedding the image that they are only for the elderly or disabled. While they are still significant sections of their total ridership, Busch says more residents are treating it like any other public transportation option

Door 2 Door Rides has served the area for almost 15 years while Door County Connect, formerly the Aging and Disability Resource Center Bus/Van service, has served the community for over 35 years. Door County Connect and Door 2 Door Rides are offering no-cost rides to the polls on Election Day (November 5th), thanks to the League of Women Voters of Door County and to all veterans on November 11th.

 

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Kenosha Transportation Academy transit tour

October 17, 2024 in News

Happy bus riders

We are rounding out the last few weeks of the Kenosha Transportation Academy, with just two sessions to go before the end of October. Yesterday was the transit tour, and it was hands down everyone’s favorite class so far! 

We started off with a Q&A from four local experts:

Anthony Kennedy, who represents District 10 on the City Council and is chair of the transit commission for the City of Kenosha

Jennifer Stenacki, AICP, Deputy Chief Transportation Planner at SEWRPC

Jeff Anhock, Supervisor of Operations for Kenosha Area Transit

Lauren Scott, Mobility Manager for the City and County of Kenosha

Guest speakers from L to R: Anthony Kennedy, Jennifer Stenacki, Jeff Anhock, Lauren Scott

I assigned everyone to plan an essential trip that they take without a car. This is an everyday experience for some of the participants in the class, but for many of them, it was a new exercise. One person shared that the trip from her home to work is only about 22 minutes by bus, but the infrequency of bus service would force her to get to work 45 minutes early. Another participant lives in Racine and works in Kenosha, so there is no public transit option to his workplace; he would have to bum a ride from his wife or pay $26 one way for an Uber ride.

Entering the transit center

After an hour of sharing expertise and answering questions, we boarded the No. 5 bus and rode to the transit center, where Jeff and Anthony gave us a tour of the maintenance and storage facilities. The transit center is a state-of-the-art building and was built in 2006 with federal funds. All cleaning, fueling, and maintenance take place under one enormous roof. It is impressive.

Metro Ride looking to expand outside of Wausau

The City of Wausau purchased the bus system from a private company in 1972

By Brianna Weaver

Published: Oct. 4, 2024 at 6:54 PM CDT

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - The public transit system in Wausau could be expanding to include Rothschild, Schofield, and Weston. While the idea is there, they do have a long way to go before that could happen.

The City of Wausau purchased the Metro Ride system in 1972 from a private company after a referendum. More than 50 years later, talks of adding lines to surrounding areas are finally here, but the process to do that depends on the wants and needs of the municipality.

“If they would like public transportation to go out into their neighborhoods and service the public that way, we’re more than willing to help them do that,” said Arran Hersey, the transit director for the City of Wausau Metro Ride.

If it’s just specific businesses, Hersey says they’re also able to do that.

He’s currently working on a presentation to talk with city leaders about the importance of the routes. This would touch on why expanding in those areas would be good, especially for mobility purposes.

“People are gonna stop being able to drive necessarily and gonna be relying on public transportation to get to medical appointments, to get to shopping just to get to community events,” said Hersey.

So far these presentations will only be to the leaders, but Hersey is more than happy to show it to the public if they’re okay with it.

“I’m willing to go to any town hall meeting for any of the other cities, ask any questions that they may have, and do my best to answer them. I could bring some of my other experts along that know the area better than I do,” said Hersey.

The busiest time of the day for the Wausau transit center is after school. Hersey says if they do expand, he hopes to work with the school systems in other areas to provide that same support.

“We supplement what the yellow school bus can’t do at this particular point in time in the Wausau area,” said Hersey.

Hersey adds that he hopes the city leaders hop aboard the expansion plan and help the local communities.

Changes to the 2024-2025 SASD Bus Pass Program start Nov. 1

In partnership with the Sheboygan Area School District, Shoreline Metro offers free rides for students actively enrolled and attending a school within the district and the public transit system service area.

Students are able to use Shoreline Metro during all hours of service and on any route for any purpose including school, work, social activities and appointments. Students and faculty simply show the driver the Student Bus Pass when boarding to receive the free ride (middle school and high school students only). Elementary students do not require a pass.

Download and view the Student Bus Pass Program. The program is an all-in-one resource guide that provides program details, teaches you how to set up the app and access the free bus pass, and outlines Shoreline Metro services and route information. We have made it simple to access all this information in one convenient, easy-to-use guide.

• Students must have a Student Bus Pass in order to ride at no-charge. Students without a pass must pay the fare to ride.

• Student IDs are not permitted.

• Student conduct is strictly enforced.

• Showing Your Pass: When boarding the bus, show the driver your phone with the Student Bus Pass displayed on your screen.

• Resolving Common Issues:

• Customer Support – Please contact HotSpot Customer Support by clicking on the “three bars” in the upper left corner. Then, click “contact us” followed by “Category/Issue”. Shoreline Metro cannot assist with digital bus passes.

• Getting a New Phone – Please be sure you log out and delete the HotSpot app on your old device before installing the app on your new device. Your pass can only be active on one device at a time.