(The Center Square) – One of Wisconsin’s think tanks says it is time to stop propping up The Hop.
The Badger Institute is out with a new piece that makes the case to close down Milwaukee’s streetcar. Mike Nichols, the Badger Institute’s president, told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber The Hop has proven unpopular, expensive and dangerous.
“Hardly anybody is on this thing, and if you don’t actually live downtown or work downtown you don’t realize that most of these cars are virtually empty all the time,” Nichols said Thursday. “I’m not sure if people remember how much it cost. Initially the national investment was $129 million, [and then there were] millions of dollars per year and operating costs.”
The Badger Institute’s piece says The Hop has a $4 million operating deficit. Part of the reason is that Milwaukee has never charged riders to ride The Hop.
Nichols also said there are downtown TIF districts that “spit out” taxpayer money to pay for The Hop.
“No one rides it, it’s expensive, it slows down traffic,” Nichols added. “I just don’t think it’s successful in any way.”
Milwaukee’s streetcar has two lines, the M and the L.
The city’s numbers show an average of about 1,000 riders per day in February, the most recent month of ridership data. But The Badger Institute’s report said almost all of those riders are on just the M Line.
“The L Line has averaged only 165 rides a day and the M Line only 1,355 a day over the last year, according to the Department of Public Works. Both lines run an average of 18 hours a day, which means the L line has less than 10 riders per hour,” Badger’s report stated.
Nichols said there is some worry among Milwaukee’s leaders that shutting down The Hop would cost the city.
“Of the $128 million, more than $69 million initially came from the federal government in the form of a Federal Highway Administration Congestion and Air Quality Improvement grant. The feds would likely make the city pay some of that back if politicians decide to finally stop running largely empty cars around downtown at all hours,” Nichols wrote in a recent column about The Hop.
“We should derail The Hop permanently,” Nichols told Weber. “Four million or $5 million a year in operating expenses, that adds up pretty quickly.”
