Could passenger rail service return to Michigan Central in Corktown?

[Burnsie]

Until the 1960s the Detroit River rail tunnel was an important link in a through Chicago-Detroit-New York City & Boston passenger service. It was the whole reason the Michigan Central Station was built way out there-- to be on the direct line to the tunnel so that passenger trains wouldn't have to make a long backup move from the old 3rd St. MC station.

I just checked a 1923 timetable, and some 18 passenger trains a day [[a few less on Sundays) used the tunnel, many with a full complement of sleepers, lounge cars and diners. The Detroit-Windsor rail tunnel's last passenger service was the Detroit-New York City Amtrak "Niagara Rainbow" [[briefly called the Empire State Express) which ran from 10/31/74 to 1/31/79.

The Michigan Central station in Windsor, at the foot of Pelletier St. near the tunnel, succumbed to arson in 1996.

From 1971 to 1974 there were no passenger trains through the tunnel. 1967 saw the final run of the last single-seat/transfer-free Detroit-Toronto passenger train, a modest Canadian Pacific operation.

One tunnel bore was enlarged in 1994 to accommodate most auto carriers and international/marine-height double stacks. Amtrak's Superliners will also fit. It will not accommodate domestic-height double stacks [[two 9' 6" containers) or the highest [["AutoMax") auto carriers; more concrete cannot be removed without affecting the tunnel integrity.

The track between the MC Depot and the New Center is there and used by freights every day. It's a roundabout route, though, passing by the former site of the Clark St. Cadillac plant.