Possible New Life for Michigan Central Station? Ford Motor Co. a Buyer? YES!

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

While all discussion of prospective developments is fun, interesting and sometimes productive, everyone should be aware that there is absolutely no prospect of MCS being used as a heavy gauge rail station again in any form whatsoever. Regardless of whoever owns or renovates the station. It is prohibitively expensive, it does not make locational sense in terms of commuting needs and habits, and routing and infrastructure issues would make doing it a nightmare, potentially impossible. That would all be true even if Amazon wanted to put its global HQ there and would pick up the whole tab. The very many stakeholders [[Amtrak, MDOT, City of Detroit, track owners, etc) would be very difficult to corral into a cohesive organized plan. And doing it presupposes that the station would be offering a new rail service that would appeal to lots of potential consumers not currently using mass transit. That is false.

What a development at the Depot COULD do for transit includes: help further the need for light rail and BRT lines and stops along Michigan Ave; warrant more and better DDOT local bus service in the area. Additionally, this could spur improvements to the Michigan Ave streetscape, including new landscaped medians, new signage, bike lanes, etc.

[Don K]

While all discussion of prospective developments is fun, interesting and sometimes productive, everyone should be aware that there is absolutely no prospect of MCS being used as a heavy gauge rail station again in any form whatsoever. Regardless of whoever owns or renovates the station. It is prohibitively expensive, it does not make locational sense in terms of commuting needs and habits, and routing and infrastructure issues would make doing it a nightmare, potentially impossible. That would all be true even if Amazon wanted to put its global HQ there and would pick up the whole0 tab. The very many stakeholders [[Amtrak, MDOT, City of Detroit, track owners, etc) would be very difficult to corral into a cohesive organized plan. And doing it presupposes that the station would be offering a new rail service that would appeal to lots of potential consumers not currently using mass transit. That is false.

What a development at the Depot COULD do for transit includes: help further the need for light rail and BRT lines and stops along Michigan Ave; warrant more and better DDOT local bus service in the area. Additionally, this could spur improvements to the Michigan Ave streetscape, including new landscaped medians, new signage, bike lanes, etc.

I find I don't often agree with Mikey's opinions, but in this case I think he's right on target. These grand old stations are a huge expense for maintenance, heating, and cooling, and it takes a large volume of traffic to justify keeping them open. As I think I said upthread, the only ones to survive as train stations [[Boston South, Grand Central, Philly 30th Street, Chicago Union, LA Union) have full commuter schedules on multiple lines as well as large Amtrak schedules [[excepting Grand Central). I suspect Washington Union is kept afloat through a large appropriation from the federal government. MCS would never have this. In addition, use of MCS by Amtrak would cut off the suburban spur that generates most of the traffic to Chicago.

In my opinion, the best alternative use for the station building would be as retail for the employees in the office building and a destination restaurant [[maybe Michigan-themed, maybe railroad-themed ala the Gandy Dancer) Old stations [[I believe St Louis Union is an example) have been turned into hotels, and if there were enough visitors to the Ford campus a hotel could be viable here [[although the fate of the Hyatt and Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn are cautionary in this regard).

Now this is where light-rail connectivity to MCS would make the whole thing really sing. A line from downtown to MCS, continuing on the Michigan Central right-of-way to Merriman, where a spur would take the line into the terminal complex at DTW, would be perfect.

Now, in my opinion [[and I don't have a dog in this hunt because I'm retired), the best possibility for establishing commuter rail into Detroit would be to re-open the old Grand Trunk Western route from Pontiac, terminating at the New Center station [[connectivity to QLine). Ann Arbor, in my opinion, is a long shot, because, other than the trains Amtrak ran a while back, that corridor doesn't have much of a tradition of rail commuting into Detroit. I believe New York Central ran a local from Jackson to MCS into the 60s that mostly was used by railroad employees to commute in to their jobs, and not by office workers downtown.

[MicrosoftFan]

There is a possible, albeit unlikely, route to downtown. Should the AA-Detroit service become popular and electrified in say 20 years, two potential routes to downtown exist. One is to have the service switch onto the NS Boat Line near the rouge plant, run onto an elevated ramp parallel to Jefferson, and then terminate either on Joe Louis via a tunnel under Jefferson or just short in West Riverfront Park. Another involves a new viaduct just north of Lafayette Street [[parallel), though this would require the demolition of a City Parking Bureau building. The line would cross the lodge and then turn onto Howard St over parking lots, terminating just short or under the large federal building near the Rosa Parks transit center. Any tunneling would likely bring the project to near $1 billion. A viaduct alone would probably be above $500 million but a bit below $1 billion.

[MicrosoftFan]

P

While all discussion of prospective developments is fun, interesting and sometimes productive, everyone should be aware that there is absolutely no prospect of MCS being used as a heavy gauge rail station again in any form whatsoever. Regardless of whoever owns or renovates the station. It is prohibitively expensive, it does not make locational sense in terms of commuting needs and habits, and routing and infrastructure issues would make doing it a nightmare, potentially impossible. That would all be true even if Amazon wanted to put its global HQ there and would pick up the whole tab. The very many stakeholders [[Amtrak, MDOT, City of Detroit, track owners, etc) would be very difficult to corral into a cohesive organized plan. And doing it presupposes that the station would be offering a new rail service that would appeal to lots of potential consumers not currently using mass transit. That is false.

What a development at the Depot COULD do for transit includes: help further the need for light rail and BRT lines and stops along Michigan Ave; warrant more and better DDOT local bus service in the area. Additionally, this could spur improvements to the Michigan Ave streetscape, including new landscaped medians, new signage, bike lanes, etc.

What people fail to realize about MCS serving Amtrak trains is that the station does not, can not, and will not be 100% train. The stations that Don mentions later on in the article are not the only ones to survive. A more accurate analogy would be Cincinnati, where the Union Station lies outside of downtown and has Amtrak trains arrive just 3 times a week, compared to 3 times a Day here. The station has survived there by converting the remainder to a museum and office space.

I think this could serve as a model for how Detroit could bring rail to MCS. Not to mention that it would really only take 1 platform renovation, a waiting room, and negotiations with CP [[or CP, can’t remember off the top of my head) to use 1 track 3 times a day for a 0.5 Mile run to MCS. The trains heading to the tunnel already bypass the innermost platforms anyway.