Hoping to get riders ready to expand their streetcar usage, city transportation officials gave members of the media a quick trip on The Hop’s new L-Line on Wednesday.
Service on the streetcar’s lakefront line is slated to launch on a limited basis on Oct. 29. During this preview phase, riders will be able to experience the new route on Sundays during regular streetcar hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. while construction continues at The Couture development and transit plaza. The L-Line passes through the base of the 44-story Couture tower.
The new L-Line is a nearly 2-mile route incorporating five existing streetcar stations along the Milwaukee/Broadway corridor with three new stops along a new spur connecting to Milwaukee’s lakefront.
The extension was funded in large part by a federal TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant awarded to the city of Milwaukee in 2015. The L-Line had originally slated to be up and operational by Sept. 30, 2022, under a federal grant deadline, but construction delays related to the Couture transit plaza left officials unable to meet that deadline. An extension later passed by Congress set a new operation deadline of Oct. 31 of this year — two days after service is slated to start.
Asked by a reporter why the city didn’t just wait to launch the L-Line on a full-service basis once The Couture transit plaza opens next spring and if the upcoming great deadline played a role in that decision, Jerrel Kruschke, Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works commissioner, said starting service now, even on a limited basis, will allow residents to access more of the city via The Hop, while also getting operators as familiar with the route as possible.
It will also get motorists and pedestrians used to seeing the streetcar in that part of the city, he said.
“The tracks have been there for a while, but to actually see the streetcar there, is going to get people used to how this all this works,” Kruschke said.
Access to lakefront museums
The new route will connect the Hop streetcar’s existing M-Line and many of Milwaukee’s most-visited destinations, including the Henry Maier Festival Park, Milwaukee Art Museum, Discovery World, Veterans Park, and other spots along Milwaukee’s downtown lakefront.
Riders will be able to transfer between the M and L Lines at five stations where the routes overlap. The L-Line will operate independently from the M-Line, however, served by one streetcar operating in a figure eight pattern proceeding east on Michigan Street, south through the Couture site, west on Clybourn Street, north on Milwaukee Street to Kilbourn Ave, and south on Broadway to St. Paul Avenue.
Although passengers won’t be able to stop at the Couture transit plaza until full service launches next spring, the route will travel through the plaza, allowing them to watch as it takes shape.
