From WXYZ-TV — Detroit 20/20 Project
For Catherine Martin getting around Detroit is an all day ordeal. A quick 10 mile trip from home to the bank downtown takes more than an hour each way.
She says it isn’t easy to get around Detroit…or out of Detroit.. on a bus.
What does she think about the idea of a train that would go all the way down Woodward to Pontiac? “Yes I’m all for that.”
But, like most Detroiters, Catherine is also skeptical. After all they’ve been talking about some kind of light rail service in Detroit for decades. She’ll believe it when she sees it. Well, guess what– construction could begin within the year according to Megan Owens with the non-profit transportation riders union. “It’s really exciting. We’re seeing some strong progress toward bringing light rail to Woodward Avenue as a start of a much broader regional system.”
Megan Owens says the federal government has committed $25 million and private investors $100 million toward the m1 light rail project.
It’s a light rail that will start downtown at the river and glide north 3 ½ miles through midtown, DMC and Wayne State and into New Center. Phase 2 would take it all the way through Highland Park to a transportation center at Woodward and 8 mile.
But there it hits a psychological barrier. The elephant in the room of the light rail discussion for years: ” There are some people who are afraid of train systems because they’re afraid that not only will it allow them to get into the city—but it allows the city to get to them. There’s a fear,” Owens says. “There will always be some barriers, some challenges, some people afraid of mingling with the rest of the region. But I think we can really break down a lot of those threats and misperceptions of threats that just don’t exist.”
So how did Detroit miss the bus on this one—and end up trying to play catch-up in the mass transit game?
After all, there was a time when Detroit was the leader. Our broad boulevards carried a bustling rail and trolley system that was the envy of America’s big cities.
According to Owens, “By the time the 40’s or 50’s came around the auto and oil companies recognized that transit was something of competition and they were a significant part of taking apart the old system. And so by 1956 we had eliminated all of the street cars in Detroit and the region. It’s been 55 years now we’ve been without.”
And now there is an urgency– a need to look past politics, history, race and cost.
Carmine Palombo of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments says, “What I hear now in citizens comments that I get and talking to elected officials is we want jobs, we want economic development, we want ease of travel. We don’t want to have to park. We want to be able to go to red wing games or tiger games with the convenience of just getting on a system and going.
The region has waited a long time for a better way to get around… and Catherine martin—who knows a thing or two about waiting for transportation—couldn’t be happier that the wait may finally be over.
Source: http://detroit2020.com/2011/02/09/light-rail-may-be-just-a-few-stops-away/