Detroit Light Rail Scaled Back To Streetcar

Detroit's proposed light rail system -- back from the grave more times than a character on As The World Turns -- would be revived as a shorter, 3.4-mile line that doesn't come close to the city's suburbs, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Friday.

Instead of a 9.3-mile, $550 million line that would have reached to the Motor City's 8 Mile Road, the new project is supposed to cost $125 million and terminate in the New Center neighborhood. M1 Rail, a group of private investors and philanthropies that has served as the driving force behind the project, has 90 days to come up with a plan.

M1 says it already has $80 million committed. Beyond its shortened length, however, the newest iteration of Detroit light rail comes with a catch: it won't, technically speaking, be light rail.

"I would call it a streetcar system," M1 executive Matt Cullen told The Huffington Post.

Instead of light rail's dedicated trackbed, streetcars have to vie with traffic to get riders where they're going. The streetcars will be on a track, but they'll also be on a roadway.

"It's initially going to be a circulator and a connector to our Amtrak station," Cullen said. "It won't be a commuter system for people out in the suburbs."

The streetcar will look much like M1's original rail proposal, from 2007, that was intended mostly to foster development along Woodward Avenue and not to help suburban commuters get to jobs in the city. That proposal was expanded after pressure from politicians in the city and in the suburbs.

Even if a streetcar system is built, commuters in the suburbs will have to rely on a bus rapid transit system, backed by Gov. Snyder as a replacement for the longer light rail corridor, to get into the city.

Cullen said he believes it's possible to extend the streetcar system, "if, over time, density and demand warrants an extension." In the meantime, he said, the bus rapid transit and streetcar systems "can be designed to operate very synergistically."

But Megan Owens, executive director of transit advocacy group Transportation Riders United, said she was skeptical that a curbside-running train without a dedicated right of way could ever be extended to the suburbs.

"We need to make sure that whatever's built first is built in a way that can be expanded," Owens said. "And if it's something that's going to take 20 minutes just to go three miles, that's not something that can work as well as regional rapid transit.

"The outpouring of support for light rail does give me some hope," Owens said, pointing to the region's members of Congress, instrumental in reviving the latest version of light rail. "I just hope we don't have to start from scratch with both this regional [bus rapid transit] and streetcar."

LaHood told the Detroit News on Monday that M1's backers would need to apply for federal funding support under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program, which previously awarded $25 million for the light rail line.

LaHood suggested the administration would be receptive to the new applicatiuon. The catch is whether M1 can satisfy critics like Owens who are concerned a streetcar doesn't provide enough benefits to the region to be worthwhile.

"We will be in the room working with them," LaHood told the News. "We're just about over the goal line on the light rail -- but it has to be part of a regional focus."

Comments

[JumpStreet1983]

08:20 PM on 03/14/2012

The original plan for $550 million is the best plan. However, it will never come to fruition because the auto industry will feel threatened and shoot it down. Also, the governor of Michigan is a puppet of the auto industry and is too much of a stool pigeon to think of the greater good for the people. Detroit is a ghost town, a mere shadow of its previous glory. With so many homes abandoned and looted, there wouldn't be enough people to ride the light rail, anyway. If Detroit wants to stay on the map in the future, it needs to encourage home restoration grants for home buyers to fix up the thousands of empty homes. Only when people start moving back will the light rail be needed.

[Oakland]

02:58 PM on 01/15/2012

Another people mover that we don't need. Reminds me of the infamous pork for the bridge to nowhere in Alaska. If people can't get downtown, they're aren't going.

[ChangeAgent007]

02:31 PM on 01/12/2012

I still think they should have kept the light rail in place instead. Use the private funding as the operational fund. Take the grants that have already been awarded to be used to acquire the federal matching. It would get you approximately 4.5 miles of light rail to start with with about 25 years of operating funds if managed conservatively, which is the requirement for DOT. Seriosly. I'm giving this to you for free. Take it! This is a multi-million dollar strategy that can be built on in subsequent years. In another five years you can add another five miles of rail and so on. Pretty soon you have a functioning light rail system.

Detroit's problem is they don't have a regional transportation authority. Nothing. I'm not sure why that is. Chicago has one. St. Louis has one. Minneapolis has one. Denver has one. Lots of places have one. But Detroit doesn't. Perhaps we need to start there.

[Justtheobvious]

05:38 AM on 01/12/2012

They must be getting a great deal from china on these...

[Eddie VanderMolen]

01:26 PM on 01/11/2012

The real solution is to extend the bus system somehow to make use of our already built infrastructure (roads) but, white people feel too uncomfortable on buses -- they like rail. The most bus-like thing white people will use are trams, like in Denver. Now if they wanted to connect the major metropolitan areas of Michigan with high-speed rail, that would be worth the investment. It really wouldn't be too difficult. They could just build a high-speed rail line along I-96 from Detroit to Grand Rapids.

[mataylor16]

04:05 PM on 01/12/2012

While thats of course true, I can tell you first hand that it requires a very special breed to feel comfortable on a DDOT bus.

[IrishEyes21]

10:21 AM on 01/11/2012

I don't think that trolley system is the mass transit system that is needed. Some type of rail system that will get commuters into the city, ease up traffic around the city - that is the solution.

But in that city - it will never happen. The car companies will always be against it so they will continue their destruction of detroit in an attempt to push car sales. You don't need a new car as often if you aren't driving as much (not as much wear and tear - doesn't break-down as much, doesn't need replaced as often). That is why mass transit in Detroit will never happen no matter how much the people of the area want it - the car companies don't want it and Gov. Snyder will do whatever they tell him to do - so they will end up with the trolley system instead.

[Qudsia00]

07:35 AM on 01/12/2012

When I first came to metro Detroit from Toronto (Canada) I was shocked by the terrible state of roads and even some highways. I would half jokingly say to my husband that it was probably a conspiracy of the 3 big car companies to keep the roads in such pathetic shape so cars would break down sooner and so people would buy more. Later I read or heard that it was actually a possibility discussed by others in the media in prior years.

If the car companies think they can make a little more money by restricting people's mobility, I think they are being shortsighted to say the least. Everyone benefits from general progress one way or the other.

[frankenheimer]

07:40 AM on 01/11/2012

The current bus system in Detroit has completely fallen apart, with riders sometimes waiting hours for a bus and many route canceled to save money. I would rather see this improved than instituting a streetcar system that seems about to duplicate the services already being provided (poorly).

[kroyall]

07:38 PM on 01/10/2012

Federal money down the drain. Democrats shouldn't wonder why people oppose tax increases with this kind of waste going on.

[Michael Siegrist]

04:54 AM on 01/11/2012

Wallstreet

[IrishEyes21]

10:10 AM on 01/11/2012

??? It's the REPUBLICAN Gov who is trying to turn this into a waste by pushing the streetcar system instead of the lite rail. How is that the Democrats fault?

[AngusC]

01:14 PM on 01/10/2012

Detroit and Michigan just do not get it and that is why they will never prosper. I live in Michigan, but will probably move to Chicago soon, I have spent quite a bit of time there in the last year. Detroit and Chicago are two cities that are near to each other and both have waterfronts, but other than that they are completely different.

Chicago has proper mass transit options and as a result of this I believe that is a huge reason why they are more prosperous than Detroit. Michigan should be one of the best states in the union, but between poor leadership and the refusal to embrace mass transit, it will never get better.

How can a state that has three sides of beautiful water, borders Canada and Chicago and is not that far from New York and other places possibly be in the condition that is in? It is just sad.

[kroyall]

07:42 PM on 01/10/2012

Chicago is about 1/2 middle class with a fairly diverse economic base. Detroit has none of that and the presence of rail will not change that. Mass transit is a marker for a successful city, not a cause of it.

The middle class did not leave Detroit (a car town if there ever was one) because of a lack of transit, it was because of poor public safety, lousy schools, poor city services and lack of jobs. We lost the auto industry and the unions made sure we didn't get any new industrial business.

[Eddie VanderMolen]

01:39 PM on 01/11/2012

Don't forget to add white-flight to your list of reasons why Detroit failed. That white-flight drove an unsustainable urban sprawl that strained the cities services so much that they crumbled. Proposal A, back in the 90s, that gutted urban school's tax base, centralizing school funding based on students.

War was declared on Detroit and Detroit lost. Detroit had the audacity of being built by middle-class people. Detroit was an example of what workers can do when united. That's the real reason for Detroit's decline.

[Matthew Harrold]

01:02 PM on 01/10/2012

You need to make sure it goes further then just the 3.4 miles now being proposed. That's a laughable excuse for a public transport system. I used to live on the out skirts of London, and it's immediate public transport system would mean that I was never more then a 30 minute train ride from the city centre. I never needed to learn to drive because I could use a damned good bus service into the local town. A decent public transport service is worth it's weight in gold in allowing people to get out and about without relying on the car. London traffic was bad enough, so I'd hate to have thought how bad it would have been without the extensive public transport network that's been provided.

[North Coaster]

10:18 AM on 01/10/2012

Clearly this is an economic development tool. It is certainly not needed for actual transportation. The streets are nearly deserted. However, Woodward from New Center to downtown is still an area with potential. Wayne St, museums, hospitals, businesses, Fox theater, stadiums. I've read about an actual shortage of apartments in this corridor. Some sort of fixed mass transportation device here would work well. Overall though, Detroit is mile after mile of low density failure, and light rail is going to fail because of the effect of spread city. There aren't enough people per square mile to support it and not enough high destinations end points. Its not like Washington, Philly, or Chicago.

[Mike Ogrady]

09:29 AM on 01/10/2012

If you look at the old maps of Detroit and surrounding areas, there was a trolley system in place that used Woodward, Grand Blvd, Jefferson, Mich Ave to interconnect the various smaller cities. What happened was the Auto Industry came about and swallowed up those routes for the population to use their nice new cars on. What should have happened is those rail lines should have been kept up to provide public service and a separate set of roads be built that parallel the rail lines.

Now keep in mind that IF Iran decides they want to push our button and close off the 40% of the global oil passing through the Straights of Hormuz, and oil prices spike and gas prices climb dramatically, then we may want to spend some SERIOUS time looking at rail systems as a way to keep goods and services (and people) moving in this country. We can supplement our fuel supplies with mass transit and car pooling programs, making up our own supplies by drilling and using other bio fuels as well as implementing a national telecommuting policy to get people using the telecommunications networks more to reduce our dependency on oil.

Of course the Oil and Auto industries will absolutely hate that possibility, but we may have to think outside the box a little more than we have been doing. Besides - Mas Transit will employ a lot of people and can't be off shored too easily.

Just my opinion of course.

[StellaDuBois]

11:32 AM on 01/10/2012

It always surprises me that so many people are unable to think beyond oil when it comes to cars. Cars can and, if your oil price scenario ever comes true, will be powered other ways. Relatively inexpensive fuel in the US is the only thing keeping it from happening now.

[Mike Ogrady]

12:08 PM on 01/10/2012

Relatively inexpensive is not the term that comes to mind with me. It's "Reasonably Priced" that is more likely the phrase. NOTHING is inexpensive anymore.....

[Lawrence Oherlabia]

09:16 AM on 01/10/2012

Maybe the street car can race the People Mover to see who can circle all of the abandoned buildings the fastest. Pathetic. The jokes never cease.

[Michael Siegrist]

05:05 AM on 01/11/2012

The people mover was an ambitious project that would have reached into Oakland County, as far north as Potniac. The federal funds promised under President Carter were denied in the first year of Reagan's first term, forcing the "loop" to be closed and neutering the project. It appears that the original plan was doomed by a lack of political will and teritorial infighting. I like sarcastic, pithy comments. But, the oversimplification of an issue is intelectually lazy. Go downtown, see the development.

I hope the suburbs aren't the last one's to the party.

[That One]

09:00 AM on 01/10/2012

We're gonna party like it's 1934!

[GregzAnatomy]

08:46 AM on 01/10/2012

Who are these people? Common sense tells you, this will be a waste of money. If it doesn't go to 8 mile and cant be expanded beyond in the future, pointless. Save the money and double the buses running from New Center to downtown and that's the same thing as this foolish system! Whose going to park their car to ride this?

1) Crime
2) School system
3) Crime
4) School system
5) Regional Transportation