Public Bus Rides Still Free In Waukesha, But On Adjusted Schedule

WAUKESHA, WI — While residents continue to abide by Gov. Tony Evers’ Safer At Home order, Brian Engelking understands the need for the city to continue to provide public transit service to those who need it to get around. For the foreseeable future, bus service within the city's service area will continue to be offered to local residents free of charge, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced Engelking to adjust the way he goes about his business.

Engelking, the transit manager for Waukesha Metro Transit, said that ridership across the largest municipal bus service in the metropolitan area outside of Milwaukee is down about 50 percent. The transit company experienced a 30 percent drop before Evers ordered Wisconsin residents to shelter in place, but bus use has gone down even more, Engelking said. On Monday, Metro Transit shifted its scheduling from its normal daily routine to an enhanced Saturday schedule, which means less buses are traveling around at one time.

Yet, as people continue to adjust their own daily routines around the ongoing pandemic, Engelking is attempting to keep transit moving across the area as much as possible. Engelking said the reasoning behind offering free rides isn’t to promote public transit use, but as a way of keeping drivers and riders alike safe. Able-bodied riders are now being asked to enter and exit the bus from the rear door, which limits how much interaction drivers have with passengers while also also keeping from fare boxes from touched on a regular basis to cut down on the passing of germs.

As social distancing rules remain in place, Engelking said that the new practices have been put in place to keep passengers from congregating too closely, which again, assists in keeping those who use public bus service in order to travel to and from work, to medical appointments and to shop for everyday needs safe and healthy.

“(Public transit) is a very vital service and we’ve got an important role to play in keeping people moving for those who have those essential trips, ” Engelking said on Tuesday.

Like other public transit operations in Milwaukee and Madison, Waukesha has shifted to the enhanced Saturday schedule. Instead of a normal service day when the transit operation would have anywhere from 10-15 buses out for service at any given time, Waukesha has combined a number of routes, and now has anywhere from 7-8 buses running depending on the time of day. Engelking said that the transit company is still able to cover the vast amount of its coverage area but just with less vehicles.

“Obviously, people are still riding and so we need to continue to provide the service,” he said. “In a non-COVID world, we want full buses, but in this scenario, we don’t want so many people (on one bus) that they cannot social distance on the bus and so we need to make sure we have enough buses out there.”