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Originally Posted by seabee1526
I like that People Mover track as well. Is / Was there ever a plan to expand the system? Have a double track and have a train running the other direction? I'd rather see that upgraded than expanding Q
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The original idea was the the downtown loop would be where multiple lines converge from across the city, similar to how Chicago's all converge on the Loop. Much of the original project was government funded but it got more expensive and went over budget and finally the government decided it was time to invest in other things.
According to a news article from the LA Times, they almost cancelled construction midway through.
People Mover in Detroit Seen as Transit Disaster
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The People Mover is a headache that almost came to Los Angeles instead; as early as 1976, a long list of metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, was in the running for federal funds to build showcase People Movers. Beginning with the Gerald R. Ford Administration, the federal government had high hopes of building similar systems throughout the nation if the new automated guideway technology proved successful in the demonstration projects.
Only the Detroit and Miami systems were saved by Congress from the Reagan Administration's budget ax in 1981 and 1982, and the federal funds earmarked for the Los Angeles system were eventually reallocated to those two cities. Now, both the Detroit and Miami systems are in trouble, and it seems highly unlikely that the Administration will ever finance any more such projects.
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The real key to the project was a plan to link up with a proposed light rail system that would drop suburban commuters off downtown; the commuters could then board the People Mover and ride it to stops near their offices. Local planners hoped the ease of rail commuting would once again attract businesses and professional workers downtown, after so many had deserted the city in the wake of Detroit's bloody 1967 riots.
Since then, however, Detroit has lost about a third of its population, the downtown area has lost its last big department store and many suburbanites still shun the central city. Meanwhile, federal funding for the giant light rail project never materialized, so plans for a "feeder" rail system providing riders for the People Mover have been scrapped.
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By comparison, the QLine was quite successful since it was something like 60 or 70 percent privately funded but of course the issue is still that it doesn't really connect any major areas and just shuttles people within Downtown and Midtown.
The chances of expanding the People Mover is pretty low since the technology it uses is so outdated and would probably cost more to upgrade and expand versus expanding the newly built QLine. At that point, it might be better to just build a whole new subway system with proper planning.
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