Jesus Ochoa, planning manager at the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS), told the Milwaukee County Committee on Transportation and Transit that MCTS is preparing a cost-neutral route-change proposal called Move 2025 and is seeking rider, driver and stakeholder feedback on draft options.

Ochoa said, “Our purpose is just to gather feedback from riders, from bus drivers, from stakeholders on some proposed route changes that we're looking to make.” He told supervisors the effort is intended to increase ridership, improve customer experience and “advance racial equity through transit.”

The nut graf: The plan would reconfigure routes and frequencies without asking Milwaukee County for additional operating funds; proposed service expansions would come only by finding efficiencies elsewhere in the system. MCTS staff said it will present a draft plan for public review before returning to the committee later this year to seek approval for fall implementation if approved.

MCTS described a three-phase process. Staff said phase 1 (public outreach and data gathering) is complete, phase 2 is preparing a draft plan that incorporates survey responses and operational productivity data, and phase 3 will return a recommended plan to the committee for possible approval. Tom Winter, director for service development at MCTS, said the plan was briefly referenced in the county’s 2025 budget and has since been named Move 2025.

Staff told supervisors they received more than 1,000 online survey responses and held four public meetings in locations the agency described as Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, the MCTS administration building at 17th and Fond du Lac, the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center, and West Milwaukee. Ochoa said poster boards and feedback forms were left at stations for about a month and planners collected those responses weekly.

MCTS emphasized that the plan is cost neutral: any service added must be balanced with reductions or efficiencies elsewhere. Winter said that means the agency will weigh changes against current ridership and productivity and consider impacts to frequency; large extensions could require additional drivers to maintain headways.

Supervisors pressed MCTS on outreach and operator engagement. Supervisor Bilinski asked whether drivers and the union had been formally engaged; Winter and Ochoa described station visits where planners talked with drivers and left boards at stations and the survey was designed to emphasize responses from riders who regularly use the affected routes. Tom Stowicki, speaking for Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 998, said the union had sought access to operator service reports and requested closer work with planners on schedule and running-time data; MCTS agreed to meet with ATU and to share data for that review.

Ochoa said staff had coordinated outreach with the Office of Equity and had promoted meetings via WNOV radio to reach riders. He provided a staff contact for district-specific feedback: jochoa@mcts.org.

The committee made a formal motion to receive the MCTS presentation and place the report on file. The motion by Supervisor Martinez passed on a roll call vote, 5-0.

Ending: MCTS will prepare a draft Move 2025 plan based on the survey results and operational analysis, return the draft to the public for comment, and later present a recommended plan to the committee for possible approval and fall implementation if authorized.