MILWAUKEE – After numerous delays, the lakefront loop of the Milwaukee streetcar has a launch date.
The Milwaukee Business Journal reports the line will begin service on October 29th, but will initially only run on Sundays while work continues on the line’s central station at the base of the Couture high-rise project.
Currently the streetcar is operating test runs on the line’s tracks, some of which were laid down with the original M-Line tracks in 2017 and 2018. Full service reportedly could begin in April of 2024 once the complex’s transit station would open to passengers.
A stipulation for federal funding of the line has been a hard deadline for the start of service, which the city has been able to repeatedly push back while work continues on the Couture site. According to Milwaukee Department of Public Works commissioner Jerrel Kruschke, the current federal deadline of October will be satisfied by the one-day-a-week service.
Ridership for the Milwaukee streetcar remains below pre-pandemic levels, but has shown a comeback from 2020-22 numbers this summer. In July, 65,749 riders were registered going through streetcar doors with an average of 2,121 riders per day, the most since September of 2019.
