Friends of Kenosha Streetcars

05/27/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EXDA4SnJJ/

05/22/2026

Ninety Years Old And Still Running At 45 mph
The newest issue of Passenger Train Journal is celebrating the PCC car - examples of which are still running in a surprising number of places, despite the last PCC car in American having been built in 1951. The classic design still looks great - and you can ride one today in Kenosha, Wisconsin (or Boston, Philadelphia-sometimes, El Paso, San Diego, and San Francisco).
https://passengertrainjournal.com/current-issue/
https://www.facebook.com/100063656196112/posts/1578635637601628/

See what's inside the latest issue of Passenger Train Journal, the only magazine dedicated to passenger trains and transit of yesterday and today!

05/06/2026

A Kenosha trolley bus on August 2, 1940 at 56th Street/Sixth Avenue (Kenosha News, by Diane Giles [edited]).

Two decades and two weeks: That's how long Kenosha had trackless trolleys on our roads.

According to the Kenosha Evening News on March 1, 1952, establishment of a trackless trolley system was first prompted in 1930, when the Chicago & North Western Railway elevation plans were completed.

The city's public service commission agreed to replace the Kenosha Electric Railway's streetcars and the gasoline buses then in use with a new type of public transportation: the trackless trolley. A franchise for the new service was granted to the Kenosha Motor Coach Co. by the City Council on July 8, 1931.

The first trackless trolley arrived by freight train on Feb. 1, 1932. The last of the General Motors coaches arrived Feb. 15, and 10 St. Louis Car Co. coaches arrived between Feb. 28 and March 20. The fleet then totaled 22.

The new coaches had Wisconsin Gas & Electric Co. on the sides, later replaced with Kenosha Motor Coach Lines.

Streetcar operations were suspended Feb. 11, 1932. While additional trolley wires were being installed, the city was served exclusively by gasoline buses for four days until the new trackless beauties hit the road.

In 1932, work began on the removal of part of the streetcar tracks. Other stretches were covered with a track-surfacing material.

By 1947 the trackless trolleys of the Green Line, Orange Line, Blue Line and Red Line delivered riders south of 75th Street and north to the industrial park that contained the Macwhyte Wire Rope Co. and Dynamatic.

Kenoshans rode the trackless trolley buses for just over 20 years before the next phase in public transportation.

On March 1, 1952, the oldA trackless trolley vehicles were taken to the Kenosha Motor Coach Co. garage at 5150 Sheridan Road (today's Capt Jim's Yacht Sales, 5136 Sheridan Road), headed for the scrap heap.

Trackless trolley driver Walter Vollbracht, who had driven the first Green Line trolley out of the garage in 1932, had the honor of driving the last trolley into the garage and disconnecting it. The 18 newly purchased
replacement diesel buses were paraded through the city, completing the conversion.

And at 11 am on Saturday, June 17, 2000, the first streetcar in 88 years ( #4610) once again rolled through downtown Kenosha.

04/14/2026

Sheridan Road at the intersection of 56th Street will be closed and traffic detoured in Downtown Kenosha starting June 11 for replacement of the embedded streetcar track.

The project is expected to take seven days to complete.

The work will require a full closure of the intersection to through traffic.

Motorists should allow for extra travel time and follow posted detour signage.

Northbound Sheridan Road traffic will be detoured west on 63rd Street, then north on 22nd Avenue, and east on 52nd Street to return to Sheridan Road.

Southbound Sheridan Road traffic will be routed west on 52nd Street, then south on 22nd Avenue, and est on 63rd Street to return to Sheridan Road.

03/19/2026

03/14/2026

It's on the 55th Street stop on 11th Avenue: https://order.toasttab.com/online/kenosha-coffee-roasters/item-96oz-carafe-off-the-rails_dded2b17-2971-4f1f-8a93-bdd2832e35e6?fbclid=IwdGRjcAQhy8RleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQBqy3bcFi5NnNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHjpNur5PEw3Ig64ocCZ7HAyltBbXoRXzUFNu-vFvImVgJHI8E3r7-0xNdpJN_aem_3BS_v9X-pKeXjx6_QmaMZQ&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb&utm_id=120240235530350630&utm_content=120240235535810630&utm_term=120240235530950630&utm_campaign=120240235530350630

Order 96oz Carafe: Off the Rails online from Kenosha Coffee Roasters. No cream. No sugar. No apologies. Our 96oz Off the Rails Black Coffee is brewed for long days, busy rooms, and people who know exactly what they want. Made with freshly roasted Kenosha Coffee Roasters beans and brewed bold for cla...

01/23/2026

Kenosha's streetcar service will be suspended on Saturday, Jan. 24, and Sunday, Jan. 25, due to extreme weather conditions.

01/21/2026

Council has no desire to keep streetcar expansion rolling (Wednesday, June 17, 2015)

BY REX DAVENPORT
[email protected]

Despite Monday's City Council vote to pull funding for expansion of Kenosha's streetcar line, Mayor Keith Bosman vowed Tuesday to continue negotiating with We Energies so that expansion can proceed.

A recent estimate of approximately $5.5 million for the relocation of utility lines associated with the expansion caused five aldermen to rethink their original support of the expansion.

Monday's resolution would redirect $2.8 million - the city's share of the $10 million project, with federal funds making up the difference - to the capital improvement fund, ostensibly to be used for road repairs.

Streetcar line turns 15

Fifteen years ago today, June 17, 2000, the Kenosha streetcar line began regular service on the approximate two-mile downtown loop.

Perhaps the smallest city in North America to boast of streetcars, Kenosha's line operates as a new system, not a vestige of previous streetcar or interurban transportation.

The cars run on standard railroad-gauge tracks that are supported by concrete ties. Above the route, 600-volt direct current lines power the cars.

In 2005, city officials sparred over a proposal to expand the streetcar line to the Uptown area and past the then-developing Brass Village area.

The fare for one trip around the loop is $1 for ages 13 and older, 50 cents for 12 and younger. An all-day pass costs $3 and can be purchased when boarding the streetcar. Transfers are accepted from KT bus line routes.

The Kenosha Streetcar Society, a group of local supporters, plans events in support of the system, It has its own website and page.

Dead stop

"I guess I don't understand the vitriolic response to the streetcars in general," Bosman said. "We currently have $55 million in our capital improvement plan. And these (streetcar expansion) funds are not going to add that much to street repair.

"The streetcar expansion would have repaired a certain amount of downtown streets. We would, essentially, be getting brand new streets in the area of the expansion. And the $2.8 million ... will only repair about 10-12 blocks of city streets."

We Energies' estimate

The city originally budgeted $250,000 to move or adapt underground gas and electric lines in conjunction with the expansion. The city got a bit of a shock when WE Energies, in an "oral estimate," said it would cost $5.5 million. That estimate was confirmed in a letter from We Energies to city officials received last week.

Five aldermen who had originally voted for expansion last fall - Scott Gordon, Curt Wilson, Dan Prozanski, Jack Rose and Bob Johnson - changed their minds Monday, backing the resolution to pull the funding. The vote was 12-3.

"I've always thought the extension was a silly idea," said Johnson. "And I think there is no value in trying to negotiate the cost of the utility work with We Energies. The gap is too big."

Prozanski agreed. "The difference between
$250,000 and $5.5 million is huge," he said. "Even if we could meet in the middle, it would have been too much to justify the costs. Downtown has always needed something to help it along, and I thought the 80-20 split of this funding was a good deal for the city.

"Maybe there are alternatives that would keep the project alive, but that's a narrow path," Prozanski said.

"The taxpayers won Monday night," Wilson said. "The sole reason for my vote was the cost of the utilities. That was my only consideration.
Certainly the current streetcar line does the city proud. Thousands of people ride it every year, and no doubt it brings some people to town. But to actually be a people mover, you would have to have the line go west to where the jobs are."

Talks to continue

The city will continue to negotiate with We Energies.

"We are going to continue to talk with We Energies," Bosman said. "I was talking to the mayor of Milwaukee this morning and he said they had negotiated their utility (update/moving costs) down significantly" in conjunction with
that city's streetcar project. The utility cost is high "because the rules have changed," Bosman said. "The powers that be at the state level are opposed to the streetcar plan in Milwaukee, and we're caught in that blast zone."

The mayor said the city has time.

"There is an August 2016 deadline for allocating the with a lot of federal funds, funds, but as is the case that may not be a drop-dead date, and we can probably get an extension," Bosman said.

12/16/2025

Trolley to link downtown, Dairyland (1/16/1992)
Barca proposes system
By Joe DiGiovanni Staff Writer

The possibility of a trolley on 52nd Street connecting downtown with Dairyland Greyhound Park is being considered by some local officials.

Federal money would be needed to construct the trolley, Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, who proposed the idea, said Wednesday. It would take a minimum four years to acquire money and be ready to construct the trolley line, Barca said. It could take longer to get the project going, he said.

"We have to try and be slightly visionary and not look so much construct for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren and look ahead," Barca said.

BRW Inc., Minneapolis, issued a memorandum in August, not a full study, on whether a light rail system would work on 52nd Street. It said the cost of light rail would be $15 to $20 million per mile, and that light rail was probably not appropriate for 52nd Street.

"A more attractive solution may be the use of (trolley) technology," the memorandum said. It said the trolley system could be constructed at half the cost of light rail.

The Kenosha Downtown Plan calls for 52nd Street to be widened to a four-lane boulevard in 1995. The trolley could run in the median along some portions of the street and would be self-propelled on a track with no overhead wires, Barca said. It would work in conjunction with the train lines and bus service, he said.

The line could start near the Southport Marina and run to Interstate 94, Barca said. Along the way it could connect with the Metra train station at 13th Avenue and a planned Amtrak train station east of Highway H.

"It makes sense as well as a tourism promotion standpoint," Barca said. "It really fits into the larger picture of trying to provide more rail service across the board."

President Bush recently signed a bill allocating $150 billion for transportation projects, Louis Rugani, a community activist and mayoral candidate, said. A trolley would be environmentally efficient and would be more attractive to visitors than bus transportation, he said.

"The difference is buses are not the glamorous type people movers that trains and trolleys are," he said.

Mayor Patrick Moran said a trolley system on 52nd Street "doesn't seem to be that practical at this point and time." The city Public Safety and Welfare Committee has recommended a task force be formed to study the issue.

Barca said using the now-unused KD line, which runs on Roosevelt Road to near the Wisconsin Electric Power Co. plant, could form a triangle of trolley service across the city. In addition, Rugani said tracks buried beneath some downtown streets could be used.

A trolley system began operating in 1988 in Galveston, Texas, on a 4.7 mile loop through the city. It cost $12 million, but 80 percent was paid for by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration and 20 percent from state and private sources.

12/13/2025

https://aisonggenerator.io/share/7cd5c5ca-72fb-4336-ba4e-b28dffc1e8b4