As I said in a previous post, I had the pleasure of attending last week’s press conference at Bucyrus International where Governor Jim Doyle joined business, labor and political leaders to announce the introduction of a bill to create a Southeastern Wisconsin regional transit authority.
I called it “a new day” in the longstanding debate over regional transit funding and the future of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line.
It’s not hyperbole, and here’s why: It’s because of who was in the room.
Yes, Doyle’s support is no surprise. Nor is the support of organized labor, and they were certainly well represented and made their voices heard. Rather, it was the presence of the business executives that sent the strongest message.
Bucyrus. SC Johnson. Northwestern Mutual. Johnson Controls. AT&T.
One after another, the chief executives of all of these companies stepped to the microphone at the press conference and told those in attendance the exact same thing – that they support Doyle’s RTA proposal and the bus transit and KRM trains it will help fund.
Their reason? Economic development and jobs, jobs, jobs … using transit to get workers to their front doors. Indeed, Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan pointed out that a KRM station would likely be located within a half block of its main entrance.
As Sullivan and the others spoke, I couldn’t help but think that this gathering marked a tipping point in this often too-contentious debate, one in which ridicule and scorn has too often replaced reasoned and rational discourse.
No longer can conservatives claim that support for KRM and regional transit is purely a liberal issue. No longer can they deride supporters as lefty “choo-choo train” lovers.
No, this is now a big business issue, a conservative cause, a liberal cause, a bipartisan cause. The presence of those corporate leaders on Tuesday showed that more than anything.
That’s why I think you will indeed see the RTA bill pass and the KRM trains ultimately leave the station. And it’s why I’ll be the first to welcome the trains to South Milwaukee.
Of course, there are global reasons for my support.
For starters, our area’s transit funding mechanism (one based on property taxes) is broken. Look no further than the “death by a thousand cuts” state our county bus system is in. We need a new way to pay for transit, and we need to join most other major metropolitan areas in making that a sales tax and RTA.
We also lag behind our peers in not having rail as part of our transit arsenal. Cities that we are competing with for jobs have rail as a drawing card. We don’t, and that hurts us.
I also strongly believe a regional approach to transit is a must if the Milwaukee area is to compete with other cities across the country. An RTA provides that.
Yet, while I believe all of these are valid arguments for an RTA and KRM, my support for both is not based on any of them. My strong support is based on the fact that an RTA will help bring the KRM to life, and the KRM is good for South Milwaukee.
Here’s why:
- Commuter rail is a boon for Bucyrus. Sullivan said it best when he said the KRM trains will be instrumental in attracting new talent to Bucyrus – a priority given the perhaps 500 new people the company will be bringing to South Milwaukee as a result of its acquisition of the mining division of Terex Corporation. The same argument could be made for Cooper Power, Metalcut, Appleton Electric and any other city employer. Getting workers from Point A (home) to Point B (work) and back again is perhaps the biggest argument for the KRM extension.
- Commuter rail is a boon for our downtown. Sometimes forgotten in this debate is what the KRM could mean to our city center. Simply, a downtown station could spur a rebirth in this critically important district. Look at the numerous examples in northern Illinois – if done well and planned properly, commuter rail stations spur development. There is no argument here. Draw a six-block radius around your station, and new business and residential growth will follow there. That means a new day for a downtown that needs it.
- Commuter rail will draw new residents to our city. So, you’ve just been hired at Abbott Labs, Baxter or some other major Lake County, Illinois, employer, but there’s no way your family can afford to live there. Nor do you event want a life in exurbia. Why not consider South Milwaukee? We’re a clean, safe, affordable community located 10 minutes from downtown Milwaukee … and maybe less than an hour from your job on the train. That’s what KRM will bring our city – new prospective homeowners and apartment renters, and demand for new housing near the station. What an opportunity.
Now, even with all those positives for South Milwaukee, I realize this is no slam dunk, and the RTA and KRM are not without their political pitfalls.
The KRM is costly – more than $200 million to get it up and running, according to the latest estimates – and it will require some sort of taxpayer subsidy going forward. Fares will not support it alone. And Doyle’s RTA plan is sure to be unpopular with some, as it calls for a 0.5% sales tax increase to pay for busses, trains and other transit options.
Yet while holding the line on taxes and spending should be a focus for any elected official, there are times when increasing both is justified as an investment in a worthy effort that promises a strong return. This is one of those times … and the KRM is one of those projects.
But don’t listen to me. Listen to Tim Sullivan, Fisk Johnson, Bob Mariano and Stephen Roell — the business leaders who spoke last Tuesday.
Let’s invest in South Milwaukee. Let’s get the trains rolling. It’s time.
South Milwaukee Blog 
Any chance of getting someone who is in favor of rail in principle to take the bull by the horns and push for high speed rail? Considering that new infrastructure will have to be implemented anyway, why is everyone pushing a rail system slower than those parts of the world known for their systems. This is our chance to at least catch up, if not overtake, Europe and Japan – and in Wisconsin no less. Imagine if we had a 200+ MPH train zipping from Milwaukee to Madison to Minneapolis. With the requisite security, speed and stops, etc. the current proposal might be about the same as a bus, except the bus can get you directly downtown Madison. Imagine if you could live in SM and commute (!) to a new job in Madison. Now that would be cool!
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There’s another reason why commuter rail service is essential to communities that seek to thrive: Forward-looking employers want to attract bright young workers, and bright young workers are not infatuated with driving as their parents were. The reason is personal electronics. They want to bring their laptops, cell phones and video games with them when they travel, and these toys/tools cannot be used–or used safely–while driving. Here in Illinois 80% of the Amtrak passengers are young people, and 80% of those on board are using some sort of electronic device. The same thing can be observed on Megabus. Nor do today’s young people have any social hangups about riding public transportation. They own automobiles, but they don’t use them as status symbols the way their parents and grandparents did. That role now belongs to their personal electronics. Nobody cares if you drive a junker, but God help you if you’re caught with last year’s cell phone.
So when the critics say nobody needs trains and that people will always prefer their cars, remember, that’s the past talking. The future is with youth, youth is riding the trains, and smart employers recognize it and are getting out in front of the curve by demanding the kind of commute their employees want. That’s why the meeting you attended was full of suits. The smart people get it. Now it’s up to the rest of Wisconsin to catch up.
The one additional question I have is where are the businesses? When businesses open up / expand, they often build the road ways to enhance those business. Here is SM, we have Sullivan meeting with his CEO buddies saying how important not-so-high-speed-rail is to the companies, but expecting the state and/or cities to fund it. If it’s so important to this companies, let them get together and fund the first stage. Heck, Bucyrus is rolling in money if they can purchase that company for 3 BILLION.
I agree with Keri A. Big whoop, we get a big chunk of our own money back to pay for something few will ride and in 10 years we won’t be able to afford to maintain. If this is that big of an asset to BE, perhaps they would like to pony up a couple million to help maintain it.
If they haven’t already done so, I would urge Alderman Brooks and the other South Milwaukee elected officials carefully read the study done on the proposed KRM passenger rail system by the Reason Foundation. A brief synopsis of the study is provided below followed by a link to the study report itself.
“The claimed economic benefits of the proposed commuter rail line for the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee corridor are “not credible” and other transit options should be studied, according to a new study by Reason Foundation, a free market think tank.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee analysis of the local economic benefits of the construction of the rail line wrongly assumes all expenditures, and jobs created, would be local, even though there is no local capacity to produce many of the components, such as the $48 million rail cars. And the $2.1 billion increase in property values the rail project alleges would mean that each of the 3,696 projected 2035 round-trip riders would be “worth” $568,000, a claim that “cannot be taken seriously” the Reason Foundation concludes.
Reason Foundation finds every new passenger boarding the commuter rail system would cost $28. Yet passengers would pay just $2.92 for a ticket, meaning taxpayers would subsidize over $25 for every new one-way rail passenger. By comparison, the total cost per passenger for the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) in 2007 was $3.”
Click to access fa48a61f437d0a203a343c1b3b6d7755.pdf
The conclusions in this report would indicate that an express bus system (noted as “BRT Lite” in the report) would be a much better and cost efficient option than a passenger rail system. Besides the cost savings, a BRT system has the following advantages:
1. Much lower initial capital expenditure and annual operating expenditures for BRT Lite.
2. If the system does not meet expectations, there is much more flexibility to change, improve or discontinue the system. Passenger rail is in a fixed location that cannot be altered. If the rail system fails to meet expectations, the cost to discontinue it would be enormous. In all likelihood, it would not be discontinued and more subsidies by way of increased local taxes would be needed.
3. If the BRT system exceeds expectations, it can be easily expanded at a lower cost than rail.
4. BRT Lite has the ability to pick up and drop off people closer to their destinations. Although South Milwaukee is not the best example of this, with many businesses in close proximity to the railroad tracks, the same cannot be said for the other communities. If we take Oak Creek as an example, the railroad tracks are primarily in undeveloped or residential areas. Very few businesses are nearby and would not benefit from KRM without additional transportation options to get people to them. These costs are not included in the KRM proposal. A BRT Lite system would have the flexibility to adjust its route closer to places of business. In South Milwaukee a BRT Lite station would most likely be in the vicinity of 10th and Milwaukee, about the same distance to Bucyrus as a KRM station.
The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority did look at a BRT alternative, however they only looked at an option for it using dedicated “bus only” lanes from Kenosha to Milwaukee. This option would be much more expensive than a BRT Lite system which would run in normal traffic. The advantage of BRT Lite would be the ability to control traffic signals to insure a green light when a bus reaches an intersection.
Please consider that KRM is not high speed rail. The average speed of the trains would be 38 mph. It is essentially an early 20th century mode of travel. Additionally, the argument that “we must do this because everyone else has one” is flawed. Europe does not have a highway system anywhere as advanced as we do. Therefore trains have historically been a viable option for them. Chicago has successful train systems, but they also have approximately six times the population we have and significantly more traffic problems.
We must also remember that this authority is politically motivated by nature with many members being appointed by the likes of Governor Doyle and Mayor Barrett, two outspoken opponents of automobile traffic who will do what they can to make that mode of transportation as difficult as possible. Also, both never met a tax increase they didn’t like.
The conclusions in this study lead me to believe that KRM is a high risk venture that has a significant chance of failure which will ultimately hurt South Milwaukee for the long term rather than help it. I would strongly urge the alderman to consider this before throwing their support behind it. A BRT Lite alternative accomplishes many of the same goals at a fraction of the cost thereby reducing the long term risk to the city.
A BRT system has already been proposed by Milwaukee County. The following link gives some details of that proposal.
Click to access SMART_plusWeb.pdf
A “lite” variation of this (without dedicated “bus only” lanes unless space for these lanes in certain areas already exists) could be implemented along the lakeshore between Kenosha and Milwaukee.