From the Mackinac Center for Public Policy

The Jackson Amtrak station will get $1 million in renovations thanks to the American Relief and Recovery Act (the federal stimulus program), according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot. But Wendell Cox, a transit consultant in St. Louis, Mo., questions why an Amtrak station with 78 customers a day would warrant such an expense.

Cox pointed to the Chatsworth station located in southern California about 40 miles from the Los Angeles area as the type of facility Jackson requires. Chatsworth gets twice as many trains and about 20,000 more passengers per year than Jackson, but has just a platform with a shelter and a ticket vending machine. It is unmanned. There is a building that has a museum and is also shared by a bus company.

Read more: http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/15636#new-thread

From the Detroit Free Press

The Detroit People Mover has enough funding to operate through only December, city officials said Wednesday, as the rail line’s management board approved a 25-cent fare hike that they said, at best, might keep it moving a few extra weeks at its current service level.

Officials said reducing hours and days of operation is a more likely remedy than shutting down the rail line outright, a drastic measure that would undercut the city’s effort to build a new light-rail line along Woodward Avenue.

Regular night and weekend service, for one, could be ended or reduced except for times when special events with higher ridership warrant keeping the People Mover open, the officials said.

The board of the Detroit Transportation Corp., which operates the People Mover, approved the fare increase from 50 cents to 75 cents, the first increase since the 2.9-mile downtown line opened in 1987. The fare hike would take effect in early November, after public hearings this month.

The City Council’s budget deal with Mayor Dave Bing cut $1 million in annual People Mover subsidies. That $1 million had enabled the city to get another $2.6 million in state transit funding. So without it, there’s a combined $3.6-million hole in the People Mover’s annual $19-million budget.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110901/NEWS01/109010552/People-Mover-likely-cut-back-service-money-dries-up?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

From Michigan Radio

There are three Amtrak routes with trains that travel to and from cities in Michigan to Chicago.

If you ride on any of them, chances are your train will be late.

The route with the best on-time rate in the last year were the trains traveling on the “Blue Water” route between Port Huron and Chicago. On average, you’ll be on-time 50 percent of the time on these trains.

The “Pere Marquette” route with trains traveling between Grand Rapids and Chicago comes in second. On average, those trains run on-time 48 percent of the time.

The most popular route is the worst.

The “Wolverine” route, which has trains running between Pontiac/Detroit to Chicago, had an average on-time rate of just 14 percent.

Amtrak provides a detailed breakdown of each train’s on-time performance along with reasons for delays on their website.

Here’s a breakdown of the on-time percentages for Amtrak trains in Michigan from best-to-worst:

1. Blue Water #364 – 73.8% (Chicago to Port Huron)
2. Pere Marquette #370 – 54.2% (Chicago to Grand Rapids)
3. Pere Marquette #371 – 41.7% (Grand Rapids to Chicago)
4. Blue Water #365 – 25.5% (Port Huron to Chicago)
5. Wolverine #350 – 19.8% (Chicago to Detroit/Pontiac)
6. Wolverine #355 – 18.7% (Detroit/Pontiac to Chicago)
7. Wolverine #353 – 17.6% (Detroit to Chicago/Pontiac)
8. Wolverine #351 – 11.4% (Detroit/Pontiac to Chicago)
9. Wolverine #354 – 9.5% (Chicago to Detroit/Pontiac)
10. Wolverine #352 – 4.4% (Chicago to Detroit/Pontiac)

Read more: http://michiganradio.org/post/10-slow-amtrak-trains-michigan

From The Windsor Star

Are the railroads part of our romantic past – or an important and growing  part of Michigan’s transportation future? The answer, it seems clear, is .  yes.

Former congressman Joe Schwarz, a lifelong railroad buff, is Gov. Rick  Snyder’s official and “highly unpaid” adviser on raiI.

Earlier this year, he worked successfully on a deal to improve a portion of  track on the route from Detroit to Chicago, so passenger trains can go faster.  “Once we get this done, we can cut the time it takes to get to Chicago by train  to about four hours,” he said. “That’s about the time it takes to get to (the  airport) get through security, fly, and get to downtown Chicago, with less  hassle and cheaper.”

That seems likely to appeal to a lot of people who put up with security  checks, or long backups on I-94 to get there. Even now, 600,000 people a year  travel from Detroit to Chicago by train, and a faster trip seems certain to  attract more.

There are plenty of Americans who have romantic ideas about train travel, or  who have experienced speedy and quiet bullet trains in Japan or fast and  comfortable passenger trains in Europe.

So are we on the eve of a huge renaissance in passenger train travel?  Unfortunately for railroad buffs . probably not.

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/Passenger+rail+travel+future+Michigan/5326115/story.html#ixzz1WiwkTGX0