Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
I didn't know that. Makes perfect sense, though. It's a completely non-viable project, but sounds like a (relatively) easy lift if it's already state-owned.
There isn't even a rail line to downtown Detroit. They converted the last rail line to a rails to trails project, so commuter rail would go to New Center, which is three miles north, and which has only one major employment center - a big state govt. office. And the professional/white collar suburbs that would theoretically use a service for downtown commuting are to the North/Northwest, not to the Southwest, towards Ann Arbor, which is mostly very working class suburbs oriented towards local auto factories.
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Yeah, the geography of rail assets in Detroit isn't ideal for commuting. You could potentially bring a rail line from Ann Arbor to Michigan Central Station, and then build a new single-track line to a new riverfront station around 6th/Jefferson. At that point you could extend the People Mover slightly from the Cobo Center to connect.
This would be a huge project by Detroit standards, but it's not much different than what Brightline did in Miami.
The downside is that any commuter service to the North would still have to circle around downtown Detroit to the new station... but you would keep the New Center station as well, so downtown-bound commuters would have the option of taking the Q-Line or riding the commuter service all the way to the end, depending on which is faster to their destination.