There’s definitely potential and merit to the suggestion for a very unique venue space. That said some community planning would need to go in. I think a good compromise would be to shift regular entertainment activities into the new Detroit City FC stadium when it’s completed in 2027. Keeping open the opportunity to have special events in Rosevelt Park as the area fills in.
*The Motown Museum is undergoing a major renovation - expansion that will include a small event center.
Nothing we didn’t already know on prospect of returning rail service, it makes sense and saves time to have the Detroit stop at Michigan Central. How exactly that would be done is still up in the air as is whether it’s a sure fire thing. It’s not hard to read in between the lines that the political situation come end of 2024 will likely play a major role in determining the outcome.
I have been wondering if a subway connection would be viable underneath the concrete pad it lines up to the height of the Vernor Viaduct and is hollow. I’ve seen work lights at night simultaneously with the pad construction. It’s not something I’m expecting but I’ve had a feeling that it might be/have been a “home run” goal or leaving the door open for a busier future. With a stub line connection to the “mobility center” being a current realistic financially feasible option.
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The question remains, will trains ever return to the station itself? Tracks now owned by CPKC lead to the tunnel under the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario, that once carried NYC’s New York-Detroit-Chicago Wolverine and Amtrak’s Niagara Rainbow before rolling to a stop at the station. Gates from the concourse where thousands of passengers once passed through daily are now fully occupied by light sculptures.
The tunnels which led to the platforms have been sealed off. The view from a corner of a parking lot under construction shows that the space where trains used to pause, still adjacent to the CPKC main line, is now a massive concrete slab.
In a view looking west, the CPKC tracks to Canada are on the left and the former trainshed area behind the station is now a concrete pad.
Melissa Ditmer, Michigan Central’s Head of Place officer, tells News Wire the area is in the design stage as an eight-acre public space “that we will be constructing next year. It will be connected with the southwest and Joe Louis Greenways from downtown and other neighborhoods.”
A rendering of the planned park on the former trainshed area at Michigan Central shows the CPKC tracks at lower right. There may not be enough room to put platforms and a stub track directly to the rear of the old station.
In one of the arcades, there is an artist rendering of the park would and its proximity to the station and tracks.
A “mobility hub” south and east of what used to be a mail facility and later a textbook storage building that burned in 1988 — but not close to CP tracks — will have transit connections and 12,000 parking spaces. There is still enough room for a platform and perhaps a stub track next to the existing main line, but access would have to be from a separate building, not directly to the rear of Michigan Central.
Amtrak and VIA Rail Canada have floated a plan to connect one Chicago-Detroit and one Windsor-Toronto round trip, trains that could not serve the current Amtrak station on Canadian National trackage in the New Center neighborhood [see “Amtrak-VIA proposal for through Chicago-Toronto service revealed,” News Wire, Nov. 13, 2023]. To do so would require a time-consuming back-up move that could potentially add 20 to 30 minutes to the journey if a stop at Michigan Central wasn’t developed.
Nevertheless, Dittmer explains, “We are working with the city of Detroit, state of Michigan, and Amtrak to study bringing passenger rail back to the station.” There is nothing concrete at this point, she says, “but we are optimistic.”
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https://www.trains.com/trn/news-revi...ntrals-future/
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