With video: Ann Arbor-to-Detroit rail project part of Senate spending bills

YAY!!

Perhaps I am getting ahead of this, but has anything tangible been proposed about how frequently these trains will run, peak and off peak, on a daily basis ?

@Top Cat: We're going to follow up on this and see what additional details we can track down. The SEMCOG October report identified "finalize train schedules and further develop feeder route service" as one of the key next steps.

Great concept - don't think it will ever work like the dreamers think it might. Just an example here. Get in my car with some luggage. Drive to terribly located parking lot to get to the A2 station. Haul my luggage a long distance up and over a steep bridge. Wait. Get on a train for 20 - 30 minutes. Wait. Haul my luggage off a train and onto a bus. Get to the airport and get ready to go. This is IF the schedule for the train is every 15 minutes or so every day of the week.

Same goes for stopping in Ypsi, Dearborn or Detroit. The bus system in place right now is not great, and again would need to be broadened greatly. The station in Dearborn is within easy walking distance of nothing. Commuters in to Detroit? Where to -WSU, Medical Center, Midtown, New Center, - wait for a bus within a system that is notoriously poor. Not many people working in the city either.

Want it to work - just don't think it is the best use of money

I share much of salineguy's skepticism which is why I was curious about the proposed schedule. As well, this trackage is owned by Norfolk Southern which appears to be running more and longer freight trains over it. Plus Amtrak's Wolverine runs 6 times per day on most of this same route. I'm just not getting this. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

How did commuter rail funding get into a defense bill?

This plan apparently meets somebody's idea of financial fantasy football. High-speed rail is extremely expensive and never pays for itself. That means an on-going financial drain on the taxpayers. When St Lois attempted to get funding for high-speed rail from downtown to the airport, they tried to tell the voters it was needed for the 'low income' (who dont usually fly much anyway). Somebody finally crunched the numbers and proved they could buy every low-income resident a new Toyota Corolla every two years with what the rail would cost. They still wanted the rail but at least they had to give up that argument. Fact is, every rider would have to pay huge ticket amounts to make it self-supporting. It wont be. Just like metro bus systems, the difference in funding will come out of highway funds. The highways are already seriously underfunded because the legislature steals the money regularly for other uses. I just cant see how it will ever get enough use to make it sustainable.

All I know is that I live a five minute walk from the proposed Ypsilanti station and work a five minute bus ride away from the Ann Arbor station so I fully intend to ride the train to work. I dont know how useful it will be for getting to the airport. I dont think the trains will run often enough for that at first. But who knows. If it looks like it might work, I'll ride the train.

I hope they schedule some late night trips on weekends. I would love to be able to walk to the train station and take the train to Detroit where I can hop on the Woodward bus down to the bar where my friends hang out. Riding the bus in Detroit isnt as nice as riding the bus in Ann Arbor but it does the job.

As a life long Michigan resident who has actually lived in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Detroit, I am very excited about the proprosed rail system. This is a sentiment shared by a number of my friends and family members who are also travelers and professionals who contribute to the tax base in the area. I visited Seattle, WA this summer and used their new light rail system and, I am even more convinced that this will be great for Southeastern Michigan.

I recently took a job in Atlanta where I use the rail system to travel back and forth to work. I have told a number of people that I would transfer back to Michigan in a heart beat(along with my tax dollars) if we had a rail system -- now, I can make plans to come home next fall.

@llspier That's why I'm in favor of the bus. Hire some nice busses to ship people around. If the bus breaks down you send ... another bus. If the bus hits something you send ... another bus. If the highway is closed you send the bus on ... local roads! If ridership goes up you add ... a bus. If the ridership goes down you ... remove a bus. It's a miracle.

If anyone dreamed up a fixed rail system as a new idea in the 21st century at bested they'd be laughed at and at worst locked up.

The key to making this work is NOT the rails, which I think are simply re-using existing Amtrak lines. The absolute *key* is the connector buses from the station to your destination. If those are NOT on time this system will fall apart and NO ONE will use it as bad publicity by word of mouth will kill the idea of using this for others. Anyone who has ever lived in Chicago, DC, or NY knows that the Detroit metro area is badly in need of industrial transportation, however too many problems still remain.

Which of our Senators or Representatives needed to be bought with this boondoggle?

Commuting use aside. Isn't this just a wonderful thing for people flying into/out of DTW to be able to take a train direct to Detroit or Ann Arbor, etc??

I mean, they have to get picked up or rent a car at the airport anyway..might as well take the train closer to your destination first.

I am closely connected with the effort to help create a successful stop in Ypsilanti. I can share a little of the information I know from working on the project for the last four years or so.

This is a demonstration rail project. The last 20 years of research reported that there was not enough ridership to support a rail system. Please use SEMCOG’s website to verify these individual papers on the potential success of a rail system in SouthEast Michigan. Our state believes there has been a recent fundamental shift in thinking that can give a demonstration project a chance at success.

This demonstration project will run for a three year time period. There will be two round trips a day the first year, and four round trips a day for years two and three. The number of trips may change, but that is the plan as of now. If at the completion of the three years, there is enough ridership, this area can submit to the Federal New Start Rail program for funding to create a larger rail network. It is hoped that this rail network would create a Midwest network connecting Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis, and many other Midwest cities. This demonstration project is necessary to prove that the ridership exists in this area to support more federal funding. This project also will gather data about what cities are best to include in a larger system and which may need to be dropped.

I have high hopes that the transportation challenges that will be present in switching from an individual car economy can and will be overcome by our citizens as we create train stations that have appropriate access to get to and from in a manner at least as convenient as the current vehicle based transportation system….. We shall see what manner we choose, and what innovation comes to support this.

My goodness people, give the thing a chance before you start finding everything wrong it, this is a great idea. It would reduce traffic and definitely help with the parking problems in Ann Arbor! I'm ready to buy my ticket already!

For whoever commented on this being high speed rail, I don't think that's the intent. It's light rail using existing infrastructure. There are other proposals out there to create high speed rail links to Chicago or up to Lansing, but this isn't a high speed rail thing.

For myself personally I can easily see myself using this to get to and from DTW and to work. It's going to depend on some fundamental things and the comment by the person working on this in Ypsi didn't give me much encouragement.

First it has to be timely, by that I mean it has to run when I need it to run (just like every other potential user will want). If I have to go to DTW six hours early because that's the only time the train goes, I won't use it.

Secondly, my work hours are fairly standard as far as length of day, but my start/end times aren't always the same. On top of that if I were to come down with flu symptoms at work or just get the afternoon off, I will want to take the train home then, not four hours later. So again, not timely, won't get used.

Finally, it has to be affordable. If I can't save both time and money using the train, I'll stick with the car. Break even on the money and I can swing to the train, but then we get back to that timely thing.

I just can't see how they can draw the kind of ridership they are going to need when offering just four round trips per day, let alone with just two round trips as it looks like they are proposing for the first year. I doubt that will meet many peoples needs when you consider the variety of different schedules that potential riders will have. What if I were going into Detroit for a sports event at Ford field (yea I know, laughable, but it's an example) or Comerica or Joe Louis or was just going into Detroit for some reason other than work, how can it possibly work with so few trips without expecting people to spend hours sitting around waiting for a train. That is something I just won't do. If trains ran every hour during peak times (the day) and maybe every two hours at night, then yes I could make sure my schedule fit into those time frames, but to get dropped off in the morning and be stuck until the evening when the one trip back to A2 takes place, highly unlikely that is going to convince me to ride the train.

Hopefully as more details become available over the coming months these types of concerns will be addressed, but from what little I've seen they are setting this whole thing up to fail right out of the gate.

I am anxious to see if this project ends up working. I hope they set the fare price high enough where the train from Detroit to Ann Arbor isn't full of homeless people.

I hope this becomes reality. I would love to be able to:
A. Hop on a train and go down to Detroit to catch a Wings, Tigers, Lions game. Hit the Casinos. Hit the bars. Head home without any worries. It would make the most sense if it stops somewhere near the people mover.

B. Going to the airport. I could also have someone drop me off at the train station.