E=WAY
FUNDING
Public-Private Partnership
The relative success of many commuter rail operations counts on the strength of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) associated with the project. Transit Innovations has been working with the Federal Rail Administration, the State of Wisconsin, the City of Milwaukee, and other government agencies, as well as private entities, as we secure a PPP.
The E=Way Project is built upon a $400M Private Activity Bond (PAB) to be administered by the Redevelopment Authority, City of Milwaukee (RACM) to initiate the bond. TI has a contract with New York banker Castle Placement to provide both debt & equity to fund the project and has committed with Citigroup to provide the PAB through a set of terms and conditions. TI is negotiating with Triple I Partners as an equity partner to release the $400M PAB with a $50M contribution.
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The Milwaukee E=Way Commuter Rail System plans to complement this substantial private investment by applying for competitive federal grants with the support and commitment of both state and local transportation entities. This combination of funding will be instrumental in bringing commuter rail to Milwaukee and the region. Such funding provides the needed solution to address high-impact infrastructure issues that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive in our sequencing plan.
The E=Way has come a long way in gathering local, regional, and statewide support from years of planning and consulting to gain favorable consensus and support to access federal infrastructure funding.
Transit Innovation has received supportive research in making the E-Way project shovel-ready from such agencies as WE Energies, M-7 Regional Economic Development, Greater Milwaukee Committee, and Milwaukee Municipal Association of Commerce. Because each specific station development project is built on TI privately owned land, each project then is planned, designed, and financed independently, allowing each Station Community to provide alternative funding in matches through Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), New Market Tax Credits, conventional TIDs, and other environmental redevelopment funding resources available to TI.
