MCTS presented two conceptual redesigns for a 25% service reduction — a "ridership" option concentrating frequent service on core corridors and a "coverage" option preserving service near everyone at lower frequencies — prompting sustained public concern about service loss in Black neighborhoods, paratransit effects, safety during longer waits, and funding uncertainties. MCTS emphasized the concepts are for public engagement and not final decisions.

At a public hearing on Milwaukee County's 2026 recommended budget, scores of residents, transit users and disability advocates urged supervisors to restore or rethink proposed cuts that would eliminate six MCTS routes and reduce service on others, saying the changes would harm students, seniors, people with disabilities and workers who rely on the