From Ann Arbor.com:

A vacant train depot in Ypsilanti near Depot Town is a target of the Downtown Development Authority, which is considering creating a policy to address bank-owned and habitually vacant properties.

City Planner Teresa Gillotti said the building is secure and a recent tour of it showed there are no issues with the building.

At one point, the depot was being looked at as a possible spot for the Ann Arbor-Detroit commuter rail line to come through, but officials decided it was too close to the tracks to install a platform.

Instead, the west side of the freighthouse will likely be used as the train stop. Six newly refurbished, bi-level commuter rail cars made their first test run earlier this month through Depot Town.

“(They) are planning on having a platform build adjacent to freighthouse,” Gillotti said. “The depot is most likely too close to the tracks for Amtrak standings.”

City officials agree that the commuter rail line stopping through Ypsilanti would have major effects on the city.

“That’s my No. 1 priority,” said City Manager Ralph Lange. “… Urban transportation is a huge asset for economic development for a community like Ypsilanti.”

City officials are hopeful that a commuter rail through Ypsilanti could spur development of the train station, even though the platform wouldn’t be connected to it.

“I think it would take someone with an idea that would fit in with Depot Town and the train stop there,” Schreiber said. “Someone had talked about a restaurant at some point or a train museum but those sort of things cost money.”

The policy to help business owners of properties like the train depot has yet to be developed or approved, Colbeck noted, but the DDA is interested in figuring a way to help encourage owners to redevelop their properties.

“What we’re saying is we have properties that have been sitting vacant for an extended period of time,” Colbeck said. “Some are banks and some are individual owners. We would be excited to see some positive use.”

Certain properties such as the former Savoy, previously called Club Divine, and the neighboring former Pub 13 piano bar, have received offers, but were turned down by the bank, Michigan Commerce Bank, that owns them, Colbeck said.

Colbeck said the policy, in this sort of instance, would find a way to incentivize banks and owners to move forward with offers. However, Colbeck said the policy wouldn’t necessarily obligate the DDA to any sort of financial commitment with the owners.

Read more: http://www.annarbor.com/news/ypsilanti/vacant-train-depot-in-ypsilanti/

From the Detroit Free Press:

It’s well known that before Rick Snyder became the governor of Michigan, he was an accountant, business executive and venture capitalist.

But for two years in the 1980s, he also was a daily commuter, riding the rails from the sleepy village of Barrington, Ill., to downtown Chicago, where he was in charge of mergers and acquisitions for the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand.

“I got the 6:23 every morning,” Snyder said. “It was an hour train ride and then I had a 10-15 block walk to work. Then I’d get home at 8 every night.”

The experience made him a mass-transit convert.

“I know it can be very effective. When you look at downtown Chicago, it’s all connected there. It’s easy mass transit in and out, especially with all the traffic around the city,” he said.

The seamless system in Chicago became one of the reasons Snyder is so focused on getting a regional transit authority approved for southeast Michigan. And after local leaders and politicians have tried for more than 40 years — and 23 times in the Legislature — to get a coordinated mass-transit system, Snyder may finally be the governor to get it done.

The bill creating the authority passed the state Senate last week and is expected to be considered by the House transportation committee Wednesday. It’s a crucial piece of the public transportation pie for metro Detroit, which has struggled to stitch together a cohesive transit system since 1956, when the last of Detroit’s streetcars were decommissioned and sold to Mexico City, where they still are in use today.

“We had a very good transit system until then,” said John Hertel, general manager of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), which runs the suburban bus system. “We had a trolley system that went from Detroit to Port Huron, Flint, Ann Arbor and Toledo. And it was all gone by 1956.”

The issue has become one of star-crossed lovers for more than 40 years, adored by certain segments of metro Detroit and hated by others.

When Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter proffered millions in transportation dollars to the region, the leaders of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties and the City of Detroit couldn’t reach a compromise. When the four leaders finally got on board for a regional system in 2002, the state House and Senate agreed and passed a bill creating the Detroit Area Regional Transit Authority (DARTA). But then-Gov. John Engler vetoed the legislation on New Year’s Eve, his last full day in office.

“I was devastated,” said Dick Blouse, the president of the Detroit Regional Chamber at the time and the driving force behind DARTA. “It was one of the biggest disappointments I had from my time at the chamber.”

This time, the bill has the support of the Senate and the governor and the four regional leaders.

So it is with bated breath that mass-transit advocates await the vote in the House, in the final weeks of this legislative session. If the transit bill doesn’t pass in the next two weeks, it would die for the year and perhaps longer. With it would go the hope of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to boost public transportation in the region with a $400-million, bus rapid-transit system and $25 million for a privately run light-rail line, known as the M-1 Rail Project, from downtown Detroit to the New Center area.

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has told state and local leaders that the money is off the table if the region can’t come up with an authority to guide the spending of the federal money. Metro Detroit is the only one of 30 major metro areas that doesn’t have a coordinated mass-transit system.

“We already have a really bad reputation with the feds. We’ve blown a lot of opportunities,” Hertel said. “I really think that if it doesn’t pass this time, I don’t think it will come back around again for a very long time.”

But the bill is getting caught up in lame-duck machinations that include the controversial issue of right to work, which would ban mandatory union membership or dues-paying for employees covered by collective bargaining agreements.

The right-to-work issue is being pushed hard by conservatives and tea party activists. “I think there’s a good likelihood the bill could pass as long as right-to-work doesn’t become the only thing on the agenda,” said Megan Owens, executive director of Transportation Riders United.

Ari Adler, spokesman for Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said the regional transit authority is certainly on the agenda, but not necessarily near the top. I “If we don’t get it done in the next few weeks, we can revisit it next year,” Adler said.

That lack of urgency makes Hertel nervous.

“If we don’t get it this time, people’s frustration levels are going to boil over,” he said.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4407 or kgray99@freepress.com

More Details: How a regional transit authority would work

Membership: It would have two members each, appointed by the Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county executives. One appointment by the mayor of Detroit. One of the Wayne County executive’s appointments would have to be a Detroit resident.

Taxes: It would have the ability to ask for millages to pay for a mass-transit system. Each of the three county commissions would have to approve the issue for the ballot, and voters would vote on any taxes.

Distribution of dollars: At least 85% of the taxes generated in every community for a mass-transit system would have to stay in that community in the form of transportation services.

Source: http://www.freep.com/article/20121202/NEWS15/312020246/After-40-years-region-trying-get-done-Snyder-may-key-mass-transit

From MLive:

Officials broke ground Tuesday on the Troy Transit Center, a federally funded project that at one point appeared dead amid opposition from now-recalled Mayor Janice Daniels.

The 28,000-square-foot center will replace an old Amtrak station on a 2.4-acre site at Maple Road and Coolidge Highway.

Officials hope the $6.3 million project will be completed within a year to serve as a hub for regional high-speed rail and bus transportation.

It will include a 2,000-square-foot building with a waiting area and public restrooms, a pedestrian bridge to the Amtrak platform and parking.

“This important investment in our future will help attract new economic development funding to create more good paying jobs across our region and make our community a better place to live, work and raise a family,” said U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, who helped secure federal funding for the project.

He initially secured an $8.4 million U.S. Transportation Department grant for the center, but after opposition from Daniels and some members of City Council, architects scaled back the plan to $6.3 million, securing a 4-3 vote approving the project early this year.

The unused dollars will be reallocated to other federal transportation projects.

The Troy Chamber of Commerce was charged with crafting a business plan to cover the center’s estimated $31,000 in annual operating costs.

Daniels’ opposition to the project was one of the catalysts for a recall campaign that led to voters removing her from office this month.

The Troy City Council voted this week to appoint Dane Slater mayor through the November 2013, when an election will be held to fill the final two years of Daniels’ term.

The groundbreaking comes as state legislators are being urged to take up bills that would create a regional transit authority.

A number of local transit proposals depend on the legislation, including the planned M-1 streetcar development that would stretch from Detroit’s Downtown to the city’s New Center.

In one unique demonstration planned Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., transit advocates from various Detroit area groups have planned a Motown-inspired musical performance calling for the legislation’s revival at the steps of the state Capitol.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/11/troy_transit_center_constructi.html

From MLive:

Transit advocates rejoiced Tuesday over the state Senate’s passage of legislation that would create a regional transportation authority for southeast Michigan.

A number of Detroit-area public transportation projects depend on the legislation, including the planned M-1 streetcar development that would stretch from Detroit’s Downtown to the city’s New Center.

And construction began Tuesday in Troy on a $6.3 million transit center that officials hope can become a hub for a comprehensive, regional, high-speed rail and bus system – a prospect that would grow more likely if the the legislation also passes the House.

The regional transportation authority would be tasked with developing a regional transportation plan, serving as a recipient for state and federal grants, coordinating routes between existing bus networks and implementing a new rolling rapid transit system.

The Senate vote Tuesday was seen as a step toward ending decades of in-fighting that stalled previous efforts to coordinate and improve public transportation in southeast Michigan.

“It’s exciting news,” said Joel Batterman, transportation programs coordinator for the nonprofit Michigan Suburbs Alliance.

“For the economic prosperity of the region and to connect our communities, it’s just essential that we join the rest of the civilized word in having a good public transportation system.”

Detroit-area activists have been making trips to Lansing to push for the legislation, and a group plans to be back there Wednesday morning to speak with House representatives.

“A lot of representatives in the House haven’t heard too much about the bill at this point,” said Batterman. “Tomorrow, we’ll be looking to talk to them and let them know why it’s so important.”

In one unique demonstration set for Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., about 30 transit advocates from the groups Transportation Riders United, MOSES Michigan, the Sierra Club and the Michigan Suburbs Alliance have planned a Motown-inspired musical performance calling for the legislation’s passage at the steps of the state Capitol.

They say they’ll sing “Ain’t no mountain high enough – to keep us from a regional transit authority.”

The Woodward Avenue Streetcar Project in Detroit, for which U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has offered federal funding if a transit authority is created, is likely the most high-profile and immediate development to benefit from the legislation.

“As we continue to work hard on making M-1 RAIL a reality as a catalyst for investment, economic development and urban revitalization within Detroit, the region’s core city, we are encouraged by what took place in Lansing (on Tuesday) and look forward to continuing our support for the RTA over the coming months,” said M-1 Rail President Matt Cullen in a statement.

There has also been wide-ranging suburban support for the bills.

The Royal Oak City Commission voted unanimously to express support for the legislation last week.

“I grew up without a car or driver in our family,” said Commissioner Peggy Goodwin in response to Tuesday’s Senate vote, “so we were dependent upon taxis and buses for our transportation in Metro Detroit. I know first-hand what it is like to go about your daily business without adequate mass transit.

“Today, our car culture has left many without the ability to navigate Southeast Michigan… We have a lot of catching up to do and I hope this signifies that our RTA will stick this time. It is imperative to the future prosperity of our region.”

The authority’s governing board would be comprised of one representative of the governor and two representatives each from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties. One of the Wayne representatives must be from Detroit.

Each county initially would be considered a provisional member of the authority and would not receive voting power or transportation service until local voters approve a special assessment or vehicle registration fee to help fund the system.

Initial plans call for high speed buses running in dedicated lanes on four regional routes: The Woodward corridor from Detroit to Pontiac, the Gratiot corridor from Detroit to Mt. Clemens, a northern cross-county line from Pontiac to Mt. Clemens and a western cross-county line from Detroit to Ann Arbor.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/11/transit_advocates_rejoice_plan.html

From The London Free Press:

More than 2,000 signatures have been collected in an effort to reverse Via Rail service cuts in Sarnia.

Members of the Sarnia-Lambton Federal Liberal Association launched the “Save Our Train” campaign in October after service cutbacks resulting from dwindling ridership were announced this summer.

Via Rail now has only one train arriving in Sarnia daily at 10:18 p.m. and one that leaves daily at 6:11 a.m. Ticket agents at the Sarnia station were also laid off.

Via Rail changed routes and laid off staff across the country after the federal government cut $41 million in operating subsidies over three years.

Eileen Viola, president of the Sarnia-Lambton Federal Liberal Association, said members heard a variety of stories from riders when they canvassed for signatures at the station over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Seniors are relying more on the train as a source of transportation, and students use it to get back and forth from college and university, Viola heard.

“I was very surprised because we were led to believe by our MP that there were no complaints, nobody really cared.”

Sarnia-Lambton MP Patricia Davidson has told The QMI Agency she is working behind the scenes for improved rail service in her riding.

Local Liberals also heard a call for greater airline service out of the Sarnia Chris Hadfield Airport.

“People are feeling very isolated,” Viola said. “They feel like Sarnia has been isolated.”

The first batch of Sarnia-Lambton signatures were sent to Guelph MP Frank Valeriote Nov. 6. He hopes to table the petition in the House of Commons before Parliament rises Dec. 4.

“We’re not alone,” Viola said. “Ottawa has to pay attention at some point because the government does need a strategy for national rail transportation.”

Visit saveourtrain.ca to sign the petition.