Environmental Justice

SEWRPC of Wisconsin has prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for passenger rail in our region, including light rail and high-speed rail projects. All railway corridors and contiguous land with rail corridors are subject to severe environmental degradation. When examining our 26 Station Master Plan, Transit Innovations (TI) discovered that most station sites have various levels of contamination. The TI environmental justice plan includes funding to clean up and redevelop each site to become productive sources of tax base within each community. When reviewing individual Master Plans at stations, you will find an emphasis on clean stormwater management, urban forestry, solar, and passive solar measures throughout the development.         

                                                                                                                                                                                

Climate Change

Through environmentally conscious development of the land, the E-Way Commuter Rail System will positively impact our communities. The E-Way will enhance and revitalize the existing rail corridors, resulting in greater utilization of bike paths and trails for urban and disadvantaged communities. While the environment of existing corridors will be preserved, the E-Way System will support new transit-oriented neighborhood developments designed to

• Improve air quality through fixed rail transit

• Preserve agricultural soils through higher livable density

• Guarantee clean water run-off and storage using sustainable best practices in site development

• Mitigate urban sprawl

• Replaces excess auto traffic with environmentally sound train technology 

 

 

Healthy Neighborhoods

Rail networks are designed and built using historical records of climate and weather events. Now, with the ‘Inconvenient truth’ of climate change, these projections are no longer reliable predictors. Even what sound like modest changes in the average temperature can translate to large and potentially dangerous shifts in climate and weather. The rail industry now must plan for a different weather future and build accordingly with a ‘predict and prevent’ ethos looking forward rather than back. Our networks, standards, and systems must be built for the world of the 2050s and beyond, a world that could be very different. 

 

The E-Way development company promotes and invests in implementing Smart City principles and intentional development guidelines. This protects our natural and cultural resources which are inventoried and preserved in our environmental database. 

 

   • Station sites serve as neighborhood hubs

• Sites and architecture designed to achieve high LEED specifications

• All sites use “Sustainable Best Practices”

• Station narrative and sense of place create a positive collective neighborhood identity

• Brownfield Redevelopment

• MMSD Stormwater Management Principles & Programs

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All TOD developments are based on sustainable site development principles, include LEEDS architectural concepts, and are cost-effective by reducing the number of automobiles required to park at developments while reducing their carbon footprint. During early planning, TI worked closely with SEWRPC to justify route selections and station locations and to evaluate the environmental benefits of the E-Way and its introduction into the region. SEWRPC adopted the TI Master Plan and entered it into the 2050 Land Use Master Plan.