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Ride a train into the 18th century:

From The Kalamazoo Gazette

Trip offers peek at Western Michigan University’s archaeological dig of old French trading post in Niles (with video)

Through a retired Western Michigan University librarian’s enthusiasm for train travel, a Kalamazoo-to-Niles rail trip to the WMU archeology department’s Fort St. Joseph excavation is planned for Aug. 14.

For the past several years the public has been invited to an annual open house at the 18th century French trading post in Niles to learn about the post and interact with archeologists excavating the site.

Now instead of driving there, individuals may attend the opening day of the two-day event as part of an organized train trip.

There is a cost for the Amtrak and short bus ride, but the open house will be free on both of its days, which this year fall on Aug. 14 and 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

The theme is “Women of New France” and will feature exhibitions on cooking, sewing, quilting, dancing and other activities from that era; there will be re-enactors portraying what life was like at the post.

Retired librarian Kay Chase had the idea that a train trip to Niles would be a novel and enjoyable way for Kalamazoo-area residents to travel to the open house.

“I think people don’t think of this. They think of taking the train to far-off places,” said Chase, who also serves as an at-large executive board member of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers, a train travel advocacy group.

“I’d like to turn people’s minds around a little bit. We could travel in our state to some of the destinations right here at home,” she said.

Officials at the Fort St. Joseph dig latched onto the idea and would like to make it an annual offering.

“Our goal is to bring as many people to the open house as possible so they can learn about Fort St. Joseph and see the community of Niles,” said Dorilee J. Schieble, director of development and marketing at the WMU College of Arts and Sciences.

At about 10:20 a.m., the train will leave Amtrak’s Kalamazoo station, located at 459 N. Burdick St., and arrive in Niles just after 11 a.m.

From the Niles station, participants will take a bus to the archeological site.

The Amtrak tickets are $22 or $27 per person, depending on whether the traveler is a senior citizen or not. Once in Niles, participants will take a bus to the dig site. Cost of the bus ride to the site is $3.

Travelers will stay at Fort St. Joseph until 3:30 p.m. and then take another $3 bus ride back to downtown Niles for dinner at one of the local restaurants; meals are not included in the price of trip. Food is also available at Fort St. Joseph.

Following dinner, the train will depart for Kalamazoo around 6:50 p.m. and arrive around 7:45 p.m.

Contact Chase at 269-903-8071 or kay.chase@wmich.edu by Monday, Aug. 9, to reserve a seat on the trip or for more information.

Learn more about Fort St. Joseph at www.wmich.edu/fortstjoseph.

Contact Paula M. Davis at pdavis@kalamazoogazette.com or 269-388-8583.

See a video for this story at:
http://www.mlive.com/living/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/08/ride_a_train_into_the_18th_cen.html

News

Detroit moves forward with plan for light rail project

1 Comment

From The Detroit News

Construction on the Woodward Light Rail project from downtown to Eight Mile is expected to begin next year, and the federal government has pledged to conduct an environmental impact study required for the plan to move forward.

City, state and federal officials announced plans for the study today at a news conference on the steps of the Detroit Institute of Arts — one of the proposed stops on the route. The study, which officials expect to take a year to 18 months to complete, must be done to so that federal matching funds can be used.

The total project, which will create a light-rail system with multiple stops to spur economic growth along the Woodward rail corridor, is expected to cost anywhere from $450 to $500 million. So far, $125 million in private and public funds have been raised to complete the first phase of the project with the hope that the federal government will pick up much of the rest.

“As far back as Coleman Young’s first term as mayor, there’s been a great deal of discussion and efforts to develop a light-rail system here in the city,” said Mayor Dave Bing. “Today we are here to announce that we’ve reached a major milestone on the road to turning the dream of light rail into a reality in the city of Detroit.”

Bing, who has been pushing for this project since taking office last year because he sees it as integral to Detroit’s rebirth, was joined by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and a host of other city, state and federal officials touting a project that has long been in the making.

“If you’ve visited other cities as I have to see the impact of light rail, you see the development that it generates is equally important to the convenient transportation that it provides,” the mayor said.

LaHood said this light rail project will become a “model for the country” given the public and private partnership to raise funds for the project to see that it gets completed.

“Projects like this cannot be done just with public dollars,” LaHood said. “This will become a model for the country: public-private partnerships, foundations coming together with the state, the city, the entire delegation around the idea that if you build it they will come. I believe that.”

Bing administration officials say the project could create as many as 10,000 jobs. Granholm said the downtown light rail project will now open to the door to other light rail connections to projects planned for Ann Arbor and a high-speed rail project to places like Chicago.

The plans call for multiple stops and the ones under consideration are: Wayne State University, Tech Town, Detroit Medical Center, Campus Martius Park, College for Creative Studies, the State Fairgrounds and the New Center/ Henry Ford Hospital area. The federal government has yet to conduct ridership studies, but that will be part of the environmental impact statement conducted over the next year, officials said.

The first phase of the project that would begin in 2011 will stretch from downtown to West Grand Boulevard, approximately 3.4 miles. The second phase will go from Grand Boulevard to Eight Mile and is estimated to be completed by 2016.

The first public meeting regarding the Woodward Light Rail Project will be held Aug. 14 at the Considine Little Rock Family Life Center.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100802/METRO/8020391/Detroit-moves-forward-with-plan-for-light-rail-project#ixzz0vTy9I8SJ

News

Woodward rail clears roadblock

From The Detroit News

Transportation chief to give details in Detroit stop today

Light rail down Woodward will get a boost today when local and federal officials announce the clearance of major regulatory hurdles for the public transit project.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and private funding partners are expected to announce plans to do a required environmental study, clearing the way for construction of the light rail project.

Megan Owens, executive director of Detroit public transit advocacy organization Transit Riders United, said light rail on Woodward would offer a “critical kick start” to building out a larger regional system over the coming decade.

A group called M-1 Rail, which includes big-name donors like Mike and Marion Ilitch, Roger Penske and Peter Karmanos, attracted $125 million in funding, which will be used as matching funds by the city when it eventually builds its portion of the $425 million project.

The project also was awarded a $25 million federal stimulus grant in February.

Owens said the early buy-in to the light-rail concept by Detroit’s influential business community lends weight to project’s viability. Many of the project’s supporters are looking to Portland, Ore.’s MAX light-rail system as a model for transit-based redevelopment. There, housing, retail and entertainment districts have clustered around a light rail system integrated with the city’s bus routes, and use of vehicle alternatives has increased.

“There’s prime opportunity in Detroit to replicate that kind of success,” Owens said.

LaHood tagged along with President Barack Obama on his Friday trip to Michigan, where they toured two auto plants — one in Detroit and one in Hamtramck — and touted the nascent recovery of Michigan’s backbone automotive manufacturing sector.

The Woodward Light Rail project, backers hope, will eventually spur a $10 billion regional investment in a comprehensive public transit system for Metro Detroit with light rail at its core.

The Detroit Department of Transportation studied a number of potential light rail lines in the city and announced that the Woodward line would be the most logical starting point.

The line is slated to run from Jefferson Avenue up Woodward to New Center in the first phase, and to Eight Mile Road in a later phase. It will be the first new rail-based public transit project to Michigan since the 1987 opening of the Detroit People Mover.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100802/METRO05/8020360/-1/rss29#ixzz0vTC1EfR0

News

Bing to reveal light rail plans?

From the Detroit Free Press

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood regarding Detroit’s nascent effort to build light rail up Woodward Avenue.

Officials remained tight-lipped about the news conference, although Bing has signaled that the federal government is putting its support behind the effort to spur a regional transit system for metro Detroit, with light rail from Hart Plaza to 8 Mile Road as the first leg.

Read more:
http://www.freep.com/article/20100730/NEWS01/100730051/1001/rss01

News

$182M power plant in Lansing’s REO Town includes GTW train depot renovation

From the Lansing State Journal

The Lansing Board of Water & Light plans to build a $182 million natural gas-powered electric and steam generation plant in REO Town, moving 180 workers to the district south of downtown Lansing.

The public utility on Thursday told the State Journal it plans to construct a combined steam and power plant adjacent to the former Grand Trunk Western Railroad Depot on Washington Avenue near South Street. The eight-story facility will span 46,500 square feet.

The 4,600-square-foot depot, which is more than a century old, will be restored and serve as office and meeting space for the utility.

Read more:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100716/NEWS03/7160323/BWL-plans-182M-power-plant-in-Lansing-s-REO-Town-w-video