Milwaukee Officials Carefully Proceed With Regional Transit Plans

"Driving toward talks on uniting area bus systems, local leaders are trying to move slowly and steer carefully around the potholes that have blown out the tires of previous attempts to set up a regional transit authority."

"And whether they succeed could depend on how closely they listen to the conflicting demands of back-seat drivers urging them to speed up, turn right or hit the brakes."

"Setting up a regional transit system involves politically sensitive decisions on how to run it and how to pay for it. Also looming over the debate are the future of the financially troubled Milwaukee County Transit System; rival plans to spend $91.5 million in long-idle federal transit aid on express buses or streetcars; and efforts to start the KRM Commuter Link, a rail line connecting Milwaukee, the southern suburbs, Racine and Kenosha."