[LMich]

Looks like the private lin from downtown to New Center is further along than most folks in the region knew:

Bids for Woodward rail line being reviewed

BY JOHN GALLAGHER • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • March 6, 2009

The proposed privately funded light-rail system on Woodward Avenue has a new name and an aggressive timetable as planners take the first practical steps to turn the idea into reality.

Formerly known as TRAIL for the Regional Area Initial Link, the system is now called M1-RAIL after the state designation for Woodward Avenue -- M1.

Paul Childs, a staffer at the nonprofit Downtown Detroit Partnership, now serves as project manager for M1-RAIL. He said Monday that bids for engineering design and pre-construction oversight were issued in late February and project staffers are now reviewing submissions from various firms.

Contracts could be awarded for those tasks as early as late March. Planners hope to break ground by fall and have the rail system running by late 2010 if all goes well.

"That's pretty ambitious," Childs admitted. "Everything has to align to make that happen." But he added, "We have a goal, and we think the goal is doable."

Ann Lang, president of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, said progress on the M1-RAIL system proved that good things can happen, even in a depressed economy.

"It's wonderful at this time to have something so big and so positive to rally around," she said.

Civic leader John Hertel led the Woodward Avenue rail effort until state lawmakers recently passed legislation allowing for the creation of the privately funded system. Hertel now has moved on to planning a region-wide transit system.

Businessman and civic leader Roger Penske, chair of the downtown partnership, serves as chair of M1-RAIL. Matthew Cullen, a former General Motors executive, serves as CEO of the rail venture. He is also president and chief operating officer of Rock Enterprises, a holding company for entrepreneurial firms controlled by Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans.

The $100 million needed to build the system is being raised by selling sponsorships of individual stations to prominent business leaders and institutions. Wayne State University has agreed to sponsor one station, while other sponsors include Penske, Peter Karmanos Jr. of Compuware Corp., Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans, and the Ilitch family of pizza and sports fame.

Penske, Cullen, and project manager Childs are not being paid for their work with M1-RAIL.

The M1-RAIL system would feature streetcars running up both sides of Woodward Avenue in the second lane out from the curb between Jefferson Avenue and New Center. Childs said that the system probably would order either six or seven large passenger cars or 10 to 12 smaller ones.

Each of the 13 stops would involve two stations, one on either side of the street, to accommodate both north and south traffic.

The system still needs to obtain a City of Detroit operating license.

Contact JOHN GALLAGHER at 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.

This is really quite impressive. It shows that the business community is very serious about this. I still can't believe it's happening, especially considering what's going on economically and socially in the region, at the moment.