Time for some updates...
September 2017: City of Milwaukee awarded an operations/maintenance contract to Transdev Services for 5 years, with an option to extend another 5 years. The contract is valued at about $3.6 million per year, with funding to come from Federal grants, corporate sponsorships, advertising revenue, farebox returns, and City parking revenue.
October 2017: A major corporate sponsor and branding scheme is revealed. The Forest County Potawatomi Community, which has an ever-expanding casino and hotel in the city, will contribute $10 million over a 12 year period toward operations (including free fares for all riders during the first year). As such, the streetcar service will be officially branded "The Hop, presented by Potawatomi Hotel & Casino," or a much less-clunkier "The Hop" (as in "hop on, hop off," and also hops being a brewing ingredient in a city famously known for its brewing history).
January 2018: About 90% of work on the initial route is competed (utilities relocated, tracks laid, station/pole foundations installed, Operations and Maintenance Facility underway). Work continues through winter on some segments with pole installation and stringing wire for overhead contact system, which will power the streetcars, as well as charge the on-board batteries for running on off-wire segments.
Today: After a 60 year absence, a streetcar returns to the streets of Milwaukee! The first of five "Liberty Modern Streetcars" arrived from Brookville Equipment Corporation of Pennsylvania. The vehicle rolled off a flatbed trailer onto tracks in W. St. Paul Avenue, then down the street and around the corner into the Operations and Maintenance Facility on N. 4th Street, all via battery power (only for the moment, as this section of the route will normally use overhead wires for power).
Final assembly will occur inside the OMF during the next few weeks (pantograph installation, putting on skirting, etc.). The remaining four vehicles will be delivered about one-per-month. Vehicle testing will begin in April, first along a short stretch of St Paul Avenue and 4th Street, then later in June along the full initial route through the Third Ward, Downtown, and Lower East Side neighborhoods. An official opening date has not been announced yet, though sometime in October/November 2018 is expected.
Anyway, links...
Article and slideshow from the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
First new Milwaukee streetcar vehicle rolls into downtown
The
BizTimes:
First streetcar arrives in Milwaukee - ‘The Hop’ will now undergo testing
The
Milwaukee Business Journal:
Streetcar vehicle arrives in Milwaukee: Slideshow
And an article and pair of videos from
Urban Milwaukee:
City Presents First Streetcar - Streetcar arrives and runs on city streets for the first time in 60 years
• Video Link
• Video Link