THE TROLLEY-LESS TRACKLESS TROLLEY.

That struck me as an interesting concept when Siemens rolled it out in Hamburg.

It's now the Next Shiny Thing in Milwaukee.

Chuck Quirmbach photograph retrieved from WUWM.

It's also a Shiny Thing currently relying on Other Peoples' Money.

The battery electric bus route known as Connect 1 or BRT, started this week in Milwaukee County. But the transit system, researchers, and employment groups say they're also focused on the so-called "fiscal cliff" that the bus service faces in coming years.

Tuesday morning, a battery-powered Connect 1 bus offered a free and efficient ride from Wauwatosa to downtown Milwaukee, via Bluemound Road, Hawley Road and Wisconsin Avenue. A recording announced to passengers the upcoming crossing of 27th Street.

"Twenty-seventh Street. BRT station, Transfer to Purple Line," riders heard over the bus PA system.

More than $40 million in federal money funded the battery electric buses and more than 30 new bus stops, newly built. A sponsorship deal is keeping the Connect 1 rides free through the end of September.

Years ago the Route Ten streetcar ran as far west as the Milwaukee County Institutions near Swan Boulevard and Watertown Plank Road, and it connected with the 27 car line at ... Wells and 27th.  That started coming apart when residents saw the advantages of the horseless carriage, and then Our Intellectual Betters got the idea that The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company was a pyramid scheme, not an integrated seller of light, heat, and traction.  And thus we are at a pass to come when that money runs out.

"If we just looked at the lowest performing routes in the system, that would be cutting about half the routes throughout the county. In terms of businesses and employers, about 2,300 businesses that employ 70,000 workers. So, pretty dramatic. Those businesses would not be along a bus route anymore under that scenario. And 125,000 people would no longer have access to a bus route — senior citizens, people with disabilities and certainly, persons of color," [transit authority official Tom] Winter warned.

Existing passengers on what passes for the city bus service don't like what would come after the cutbacks. But raising vehicle registration fees won't sit well with people who are bypassing the buses with their motorcars.