Although a lot of attention is paid to buses and transit in the city of Detroit, the reality is the vast majority of people in Metro Detroit do not live within the city limits. Although some do, many of their trips to get around don’t involve the city at...
The Detroit region already squandered the latest, best opportunity to invest in our region and sharpen our economic competitiveness, thanks to the intransigence of Oakland and Macomb Counties in stonewalling the latest Regional Transit Authority plan. The refusal of Oakland and Macomb representatives to simply approve putting the proposal before...
On this week’s Daily Detroit Happy Hour with Sven Gustafson, we talk mass transit. A new plan called “Connect Southeast Michigan” has been put forth by Wayne County Executive Warren Evans (more here)… but does it even have a chance? Does any plan have a chance? The Daily Detroit...
The ongoing saga of regional transit negotiations is like watching a friend tragically go after dating someone they really, really like – but the person that’s the target of their affection just isn’t interested. The reality is a four county transit solution isn’t politically workable here. We should...
There’s a change at the top of The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) today. Michael Ford is out as head as CEO of the organization, with the board voting to terminate his $200,000 per year contract. The Board of Directors, according to a news release, appointed...
Sometimes, you have to take the hint. The Regional Transit Authority Millage – losing by a wide margin in Macomb County (60/40) and a small one in Oakland – isn’t necessarily a surprise, but it should be a signal. The Detroit Regional Chamber and many business leaders signed on to...
The second of six QLINE streetcar arrived Wednesday night, according to M1-Rail officials. Each of the three-piece cars are 66 feet long and will carry an average of 125 passengers per car at up to 35 miles per hour. They’ll also have wi-fi, vertical bike racks and climate control....
I’ve spent the past couple days riding the new RefleX bus, a limited-stop, express bus service between the suburbs and downtown Detroit, and I’m here to tell you: The Duran Duran song by the same name totally keeps popping into my head. Also, the three-year pilot program is...
If you doubted that the QLINE/M1-Rail was going to happen, it doesn’t get more real than the first streetcar being delivered. Daily Detroit was on hand in New Center as the first of six streetcars arrived near the Penske Tech Center. These are the first full-service streetcars since...
If you drive down Woodward from about Grand Boulevard to Campus Martius, you can see the overhead lines being strung up, the rails getting completed and the stations starting to pop up. We’re getting closer to QLINE becoming a reality. The latest news is that the first streetcar from...
It’s a common saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. As we told you earlier today, the RTA board — after four years of work, and thanks to some last-minute objections from Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and Oakland County Executive...
It’s pretty clear where some of the region’s heavy-hitters in the business community stand on mass transit, especially after a letter sent to the executives signed by nearly three dozen people. In a letter sent to Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, they...
This is why we can’t have nice things. That was our reaction, along with a cynical shrug of the shoulders, to the news that the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority was forced to postpone voting on its master plan. This, after literally decades of false starts and setbacks that...
Detroit’s been waiting a long time for a cohesive plan for mass transit, and it looks like we’ll have to wait another week to get a final plan. A vote of the board of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan had been scheduled for their meeting today...
Woodward, Gratiot, Michigan Avenue, and M-59. When a bill to establish a regional transit authority in metro Detroit came before the Michigan Legislature four years ago, it named only those four regional corridors as the agency’s focus, prompting concerns by some – including ourselves – that the authority might overlook the...
Did you know that Detroit had a serious proposal to construct a subway? According to a 1915 report at the New York Public Library and on the Internet Archive titled, “On Detroit Street Railway Traffic and Proposed Subway,” we were pretty darn close to joining other major cities with this...
This November, the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan is expected to propose a millage request to voters in Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties to improve public transit in metro Detroit. The plan calls for constructing dedicated bus rapid transit lanes along Gratiot, Michigan and Woodward avenues (see video...
Since the removal of Detroit’s streetcar system in the 1950s, Detroit’s mass transit system hasn’t been the same. This video by AECOM is a look into what the future could hold for transit in metro Detroit, if a millage is passed in November to fund expanded transit...
