Quote Originally Posted by Atticus View Post
Agree. DTW biggest problem is the awful design on the ground transportation side, rental car facilities, and lack of transit options to downtown.
Detroit is not exactly a tourist hub, visitors to the city are going to be either visiting family or on business. People visiting family aren't going be going directly downtown in any significant numbers, and even business travelers aren't nearly as likely to be going straight downtown as business travelers to other cities—they'll be going all over the region.

The big exception is people who visit the city for sporting events, who will head straight downtown from the airport. But how big can even this chunk of people be.

This is always going to make demand for quick and affordable mass transit between DTW and downtown light enough for it to be unviable.