By Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer Published Sep 07, 2018 at 11:36 AM

As The Hop Milwaukee streetcar nears road-readiness, the last of the five vehicles arrived at the streetcar shed on 5th and Clybourn Friday morning.

The first of the 67-foot, 83,000-pound vehicles arrived here in late March and others have followed periodically since.

Shortly afterward, we got a peek inside the operations and maintenance facility, neatly tucked beneath the I-794 spur, next to Stone Creek Coffee’s roastery and cafe.

Like the other four streetcar sets, the fifth one arrived from the Brookville, Pennsylvania factory in which it was constructed and traveled on the back of a flatbed semi trailer through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The arrival blocked traffic along a stretch of West St. Paul Avenue Friday.

The "Liberty" model streetcars were built by Brookville Equipment Corp.

Although the streetcar isn’t operating yet, you can sometimes encounter a train running along the tracks for testing and staff training.

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That testing is expected to continue for at least a few more weeks. An official launch date for The Hop service will be announced soon, according to a City of Milwaukee press release.

For more on how to navigate the streetcar tracks and share the streets with The Hop, check out the "HopSmart" website, which has tips and videos.

Streetcar rides will be free for the first year thanks to a 12-year, $10 million sponsorship deal with Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.

He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.

With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.

He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.

In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.

He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.