BY MATT HELMS

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


Gov. Rick Snyder will propose building a network of high-speed buses along major roads between Detroit and its suburbs to pave the way for a regional transit system, officials in his administration said this afternoon.

Snyder, in a speech that will lay out his transportation agenda Wednesday afternoon at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, will propose creating rapid-transit bus lines along Woodward and Gratiot avenues from downtown to suburbs, between downtown and Ann Arbor with a stop at Detroit Metro Airport, as well as along M-59 in Macomb and Oakland counties.

The high-speed bus lines would be operated by a new governing board made up of representatives of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties independently of existing transit providers, the Detroit Department of Transportation and SMART, the suburban bus system.

Snyder administration officials said the governor views the plan as way to jump-start a regional transit system in metro Detroit, a long-sought goal that has defied dozens of similar attempts since the 1960s. The rapid-transit system would be operated and funded independently – through a fee on vehicle registrations or similar method voters would be asked to approve – and would provide a road map for the city and suburban bus systems to ultimately work better together if not merge outright.

Continued at: http://www.freep.com/article/20111025/NEWS05/111025053/Snyder-propose-high-speed-bus-network-knit-Detroit-suburban-systems?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE