Falling Transit Ridership

[Hermod]

But sure let's use the QLine and Hermod's known bias against public transit to just wallow and do nothing about our lack of effective public transit in Detroit.

Given that I am a railroad, interurban, and trolley nut, I am certainly not opposed to rapid and efficient public transit.

What I am opposed to is boondoggles like the Detroit parking shuttle [[aka Q-line) or the abortion called the Wave they are trying to build here in Ft Lauderdale. They do not "move" significant numbers of people and just make the traffic more congested.

What would really be ideal would be if 48307 could just hop in his car and drives over to, say, 24 Mile and Van Dyke where he would board a rapid rail car moving as either a subway or an elevated railroad which would whisk him downtown while he lounges in a reclining seat using the on-board Wi-Fi to surf the internet or do wok on his laptop which is held by the convenient tray table folding down on the back of the seat in front of him.

The operator has at his controls a red button and if an objectionable passenger makes troubles for the operator or for the other passengers, he pushes the button and the train is met at the next station stop by four jack-booted thugs who pull the offender off the train and give hoim a well-deserved "wood shampoo" with their nightsticks.

Trains would run on ten minute headway during morning and evening rush hours and twenty minute headway the remainder of the 24 hours. If 48307 chose to go to the airport, he could quickly transfer downtown from the Van Dyke line to the Michigan line which would drop him off at the front of the airport.

The Jefferson line would go to Mount Clemens. The Gratiot line would go to Port Huron. The Van Dyke line would go to Imlay City. The Woodward line would go to Flint. The Southfield line would go from Melvindale to Birmingham. The Grand River line would go to Brighton. The Schoolcraft line would go to Ann Arbor as would the Michigan line. The Fort Street line would go to Monroe.

The next thing we would do is build lateral lines along 8-Mile, I-696, and M-59. Standard fare would be a buck a ride.

While not exactly in line with my vision, this is what we once had: