M-1 rail discussion

[emu steve]

Good discussion.

I was in Detroit over the 4th and traveled Woodward out to I believe 15 or 16 mile road. I was tempted to stop at the Basilica of the Little Flower and pray for our Tigers [[that was after Miggy went down).

My gut [[for what it is worth):

I see New Center is kind of like a transfer stop. Maybe a line extends north along Woodward into Oakland County BUT the original 3.3M line would terminate at that point [[New Center) so that frequent service along that 3.3M route could be maintained.

If service between New Center and the southern end point degrades the whole project will fail. Service, as folks here have said, has to be frequent and reliable. Folks will not wait in winter for a 10 minute late transit.

What makes any kind of mass transit work is frequent service based on 'probabilities': If service frequency is every 8 minutes, I can walk up to stop and 'guess' that my next bus/subway/etc. would be only 4 minutes wait [[on average). Riders don't mind that.

A single 8 or 9 mile loop route between 8 mile and downtown would not be good that 'average' 4 minute wait could extend to from say 2 minutes to maybe 15. Not good.