On July 27, the City of Detroit broke ground on M-1 Rail, a 3.3-mile streetcar line that will run down Woodward Avenue from the Central Business District to New Center.
Despite the fact that the city filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, is $18 billion in debt, and nearly half of its 138 square miles have been abandoned, city leaders hope the new transit project will spur $3 billion in economic development to help revive their dying city.
In April, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) green-lighted the $140 million transit project.
Last year, Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood announced that Detroit would be getting $25 million in federal funds for M-1 Rail. The rest of the construction costs will be raised from private donors.
.......“That’s decades away from happening,” Staley pointed out. “The idea that people would move into a bankrupt city with out-of-control spending and the worst public schools in the nation because of a streetcar really strains any concept of credibility.”
The light rail line will connect with Detroit’s People Mover, which runs in a 2.9-mile loop around the downtown section of the city.
Detroit's People Mover. (AP photo)
The People Mover, which opened in 1987, was designed to carry up to 15 million riders per year, but attracted only 2.2 million passengers last year, according to data from the American Public Transportation Association.
The line has to be heavily subsidized by Detroit taxpayers because the 75-cent fare only covers 11 percent of the operating costs per passenger mile.
Staley says that the MI-Rail project is likely to share a similar fate.
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