County tries to jump-start bus

The Ozaukee County Express bus that brings commuters into and out of Milwaukee is hoping to lure riders back in the coming weeks as it offers free rides from Dec. 6 to 10.

The bus, which was shuttered in May of 2020 due to the pandemic, relaunched on Aug. 30 but has suffered from a lack of ridership since that time, Transit Supt. Joy Neilson-Loomis said.

“We’ve had very minimal ridership since then,” she said.

She attributed that to the surge in the delta variant of the Covid-19 virus since the reopening and the fact that many businesses that initially planned to bring workers back in person in September have postponed those plans.

“There are still some businesses waiting until January to come back,” Neilson-Loomis said. “And a lot of people have also changed jobs.”

But, she said, the biggest issue is that many people aren’t aware of the commuter bus.

“Some riders who really enjoy it said no one in their buildings downtown knew about it,” Neilson-Loomis said. 

Even before the pandemic, she said, ridership on commuter bus lines throughout the country had been on the decline.

At its peak in 2012, she said, the Ozaukee Express provided 93,000 rides annually. In 2019, that number had fallen to 51,000 rides a year.

And right now, there’s been fewer than 100 people riding the bus each day, Neilson-Loomis said.

So to try to increase awareness and promote the service, the county decided to offer free rides for a week.

“We still think it’s very important to have this connection,” Neilson-Loomis said. “We want to keep it going. We know it will grow. We just don’t know what the post-pandemic numbers will be.

“Now is not the time to cancel it. Once we lose the commuter bus, it will be very difficult to get it back.”

The county is aiming at achieving 50% of the ridership it had in 2019, although Neilson-Loomis acknowledged that isn’t a hard and fast goal. 

The Transit Service has received federal grants for Covid-19 relief to keep the service going, Neilson-Loomis said, adding the funds will continue for the next two years.

“We’re going to keep it going as long as we can,” she said.

Neilson-Loomis said she believes that as people return to their Milwaukee workplaces to work in person ridership will go up —especially because of rising fuel costs and the I-43 expansion project, which means construction along the freeway for the next several years.

“The ride is already pretty tough,” she said.

Although the bus service is back, there have been a few changes. The bus stops at three spots in Ozaukee County — Walmart in Saukville, Grafton Commons in Grafton and the Cedarburg park and ride lot.

It offers seven pickup and drop off times each morning and afternoon Mondays through Fridays — between 7 and 9 a.m. and from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The cash fare is $3.50 but reduced fee rides are offered with a card from Milwaukee County Transit System, which contracts with the county to run the Express bus.

The free week of rides is the only promotion planned so far to raise awareness of the commuter bus, Neilson-Loomis said, since no one knows when the majority of businesses will return to in-person work.

For more information about the bus service, visit ozaukeetransit.com or call (414) 344-6711.