Shuttle bus from downtown Detroit to Metro Airport to begin service in March

[Burnsie]

Just build a damn light rail in the middle/along of I-94 from Detroit to Metro Airport. Simple

You seriously think that project would be simpler than just starting up a bus service? The Qline cost $187 million for 3.3 measly miles. A light rail in the median of I-94 from Merriman Rd. to Michigan Ave., and from there to Campus Martius would be some 18 miles long. You'd have to expand no less than 15 overpasses, and deal with a 2.5 mile stretch east of the River Rouge where there *isn't* any median. And that doesn't even address having to build crossings over emergency vehicle turnarounds.

Of course it's technically feasible, but that bears no relation to being politically feasible. I'm a railfan but a frequent express bus from the ground transportation area at Metro to downtown is infinitely more realistic.

[K-slice]

You seriously think that project would be simpler than just starting up a bus service? The Qline cost $187 million for 3.3 measly miles. A light rail in the median of I-94 from Merriman Rd. to Michigan Ave., and from there to Campus Martius would be some 18 miles long. You'd have to expand no less than 15 overpasses, and deal with a 2.5 mile stretch east of the River Rouge where there *isn't* any median. And that doesn't even address having to build crossings over emergency vehicle turnarounds.

Of course it's technically feasible, but that bears no relation to being politically feasible. I'm a railfan but a frequent express bus from the ground transportation area at Metro to downtown is infinitely more realistic.

Except that no one with the means to avoid a bus, rides a bus. You will not convince the average joe who can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on air travel to jump on a bus. The arguments for bus vs rail transit are always the same, bus promoters will time and again argue for bus's flexibility, low up front costs, ease of implementation, and so on. However they miss the simple fact that Americans don't want to ride busses, and won't if there is any viable alternative.

[Burnsie]

Except that no one with the means to avoid a bus, rides a bus. You will not convince the average joe who can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on air travel to jump on a bus. The arguments for bus vs rail transit are always the same, bus promoters will time and again argue for bus's flexibility, low up front costs, ease of implementation, and so on. However they miss the simple fact that Americans don't want to ride busses, and won't if there is any viable alternative.

How about we see how this pilot run goes before assuming that? As the news reports state, this will be a no-intermediate stop trip with Indian Trails buses, the same kind that the popular Michigan Flyer uses between East Lansing, Ann Arbor and Metro. I have ridden that numerous times, have you ever been on it?

This isn't a Greyhound that you'd be stuck on for hours, it'll have the same passengers that are on the planes, not random bus station characters. And you still haven't addressed where the hundreds of millions to build a light rail would come from.