Revised Amtrak vision would link Detroit, Metro Airport by rail

[Airforceguy]

This would be great if this happens...



The latest revision to Amtrak's Cleveland — Toledo — Detroit/Pontiac corridor proposal now includes a passenger rail connection to Detroit Metropolitan Airport.The previous proposal included stations in Ohio in Cleveland, Elyria, Sandusky and Toledo, with Michigan Stations located in Detroit, Royal Oak, Troy and Pontiac. The revised proposal includes DTW and the Cleveland Hopkins Airport in Ohio as additional locations.

Downtown Detroit does not currently have a rail connection to the international airport about 20 miles away in Romulus. “These new rail connections between major metro areas and smaller cities would improve mobility for underserved communities and provide reliable and efficient transportation to education and employment opportunities along the route,” the proposal on the Amtrak ConnectUs site states.

According to the proposal, there has not been a passenger rail connection between Cleveland and Detroit to Toledo since 2004.

The new Amtrak corridor would also create connections between the University of Michigan – Dearborn, the University of Detroit Mercy, Bowling Green State University, the University of Toledo and more. “Much of the travel between Cleveland and Detroit takes place on I-90 and I-75, even though the distance between the cities of less than 170 miles represents the sweet spot for intercity passenger rail service,” the proposal states.

The official proposal was filed by the Ohio Rail Development Commission, a spokesperson for Amtrak told Crain’s. The spokesperson said that while Amtrak is not able to comment on the new proposal, a report by the Federal Railroad Administration will be released on Friday.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/transp...ledo-cleveland

[Richard]

It makes sense because a lot of regional air carriers have ceased operations across that band so the only alternative was to drive or bus.

It funny how no matter how far we have advanced as a country we always seem to revert back to the old ways that actually worked more efficiently.

[K-slice]

If the tracks were there, could they also have a train running from the Detroit station to the airport say every hour? That's what actually makes sense.

[mwilbert]

If the tracks were there, could they also have a train running from the Detroit station to the airport say every hour? That's what actually makes sense.

I'd love to see it, but are they going to run a new set of tracks? My impression is that the existing track, aside from not actually going to the airport, is close to unusable for a frequent passenger service because it's mostly a freight line and the passenger service gets backed up by the freight.

[Atticus]

For train service to be acceptable by the masses, train service needs to be reliable.

For train service to be reliable, passenger train service needs to operate on tracks exclusive for passenger rail. Otherwise passenger service will always be second fiddle to freight.

We have a long way to go before getting exclusive passenger rail lines. So we have a long way to go before having good train services.