Purpose & Need

On behalf of the Intergovernmental Partnership of the Counties and Cities of Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WISDOT) and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, the Regional Planning Commmission is undertaking the EIS and Project Development phase of the KRM Alternatives Analysis (AA) in order to produce a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), refine the previous alternatives analysis, and develop further a commuter transportation project within the corridor. This study is funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5309 “New Starts” program, WISDOT, and the members of an Intergovernmental Partnership consisting of the Cities and Counties of Kenosha, Milwaukee, and Racine, WISDOT, and the Regional Planning Commission. The products of this study will be used to support an application to the FTA for funding of Preliminary Engineering (PE) under the FTA’s New Starts program.

The improvement and expansion of public transit in this heavily traveled corridor has the potential to provide a public transit alternative which will have travel times competitive with the automobile, support and encourage more efficient higher density development, reduce automobile traffic volume and congestion, reduce transportation-related air pollutants and energy consumption, provide a high quality alternative when IH 94 is undergoing reconstruction, and meet the needs of those who are unable or who choose not to use an automobile.

The corridor extending from Milwaukee to Chicago covers only 9% of the area in the thirteen counties comprising the combined Milwaukee and Chicago metropolitan area, but represents 26% of the population and 36% of the employment. Population density is nearly 3 times higher and job density is nearly 4 times higher in this corridor than in the combined metropolitan area, and is expected to grow. The portion of the corridor in southeastern Wisconsin lacks transportation options for travel between communities in the corridor, as well as for travel between southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois. People with limited or no access to private automobiles are particularly restricted in their ability to access jobs and education, and census data indicates that 15% of the households within the KRM corridor in southeastern Wisconsin do not have an automobile.

Existing transit services do operate within the KRM corridor, but consist largely of separate local systems with services that are slow, operate only in a limited service area, and are not coordinated with each other. Improved transit is necessary for the corridor’s employers to find the workers they need to grow their businesses and for people within the corridor to access jobs as well as education and recreation. With limited arterial street and highway capacity, growing traffic volumes and congestion, and extremely limited opportunities for new highways, it is time to develop high quality and attractive transit service in the corridor that is competitive with the private automobile in terms of travel time, cost, and convenience.

High quality and attractive transit service can stimulate desirable and positive land use development and redevelopment in the older major cities such as Kenosha, Milwaukee, and Racine, in the older suburban communities such as Cudahy, St. Francis, and South Milwaukee, and in the newer developing communities such as Caledonia, Oak Creek, and Somers. An investment in high-quality transit service will generate additional investment in communities.