by Doug Henze
December 16, 2008

The President’s Conference Committee streetcar (better known as the P.C.C.) was the last “light rail” vehicle to operate along the streets of Detroit. The Detroit PCCs operated from 1947 until 1956 — when all streetcar service in Detroit was discontinued. Between the State Fairgrounds Loop and Six Mile Road, Woodward streetcars operated along an exclusive, private right-of-way along the center median of the highway. Photo and history provided by detroittransithistory.info.

It was 1956 when John Hertel was first forced to give some serious thought to public transit.

That was the year Hertel’s parents took him and his brother to a shopping center at Gratiot and Seven Mile in Detroit on a Sunday. When the confused young siblings asked why they were going shopping on a day all the stores were closed, their parents told them they were about to witness a sad event.

“We’re going there to have you ride on the last streetcar,” Hertel’s parents explained.

Fifty-two years after Detroit’s streetcar system was dismantled, Hertel is still hoping to see meaningful public transportation return to the region, despite the multitude of attempts that have fallen short. As chief executive officer of metro Detroit’s Regional Transit Coordinating Council — the authority set up to collect operating funds for regional, public transportation — it has been his job for the past two years to help move public transit from concept to reality.

With the gas price spike earlier this year, the prolonged “brain drain” caused by young people leaving Michigan to seek hip urban areas with public transportation, and plans by the federal government to rework public transportation funding next year, the issue has moved onto the front burner in Michigan. The topic has the attention of the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Michigan Legislature and other Michigan movers and shakers.

John Hertel

Plans are under way for the upgrade and further coordination of metro Detroit’s two bus systems. And several passenger rail systems, including one along Woodward in Detroit and one along the U.S. 23 corridor in Livingston and Washtenaw counties, are scheduled for a 2010 startup — if millions of dollars in funding are approved.

But is there reason to hope the creation of an expensive public transportation system — especially at a time when the state’s economy is failing — will be successful this time? There’s cause for concern.

“There have been 23 failed efforts to create a regional transportation system since the 1960s,” Hertel told the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments in a late November transit update at a Sterling Heights hotel. “The con is it costs a lot of money, but it’s worth it.”

While only about 40 percent of the cost of the best public transportation systems is returned at fare boxes, he said, investment in public transportation spurs private development. For each dollar spent on transportation, $8 is invested by private developers, said Hertel, whose research includes a visit to Denver to look at the light-rail system that helped revitalize that city.

“I’m a little bit nervous about what’s coming in the next few weeks,” Hertel said in November, looking forward to this month’s fast-paced action on transportation.

On December 8, Hertel won unanimous support for a regional transportation master plan from his employers — the “Big Four” of Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, Macomb County Board of Commissioners Chairman William Crouchman, and Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. The next step, which likely will come after the first of the year, will be to construct a governing body representing each of the governmental partners to get the transit plan moving in metro Detroit.

Aiding the effort will be action the state Senate took on December 4 approving four bills that would help establish a 3.4-mile light-rail line along Woodward Avenue between Hart Plaza and Grand Boulevard in Detroit’s New Center area. The project, backed by Rock Financial founder Dan Gilbert, car magnate Roger Penske and others, would use more than $100 million in private funds.

Part of the legislation, already passed by the state House but needing final legislative action in the current lame-duck session, would allow for creation of a nonprofit group to build and operate the railway. That entity could obtain land and sell bonds as part of the bill package.

The bills would allow the Michigan Department of Transportation to establish a finance zone to capture additional revenues from property tax increases in the zone. MDOT also would have to supplement railway revenues from riders with as much as $8 million annually.

Rep. Marie Donigan (D-Royal Oak), a member of the House Transportation Committee, stressed the need for coordination among metro Detroit transportation leaders to make the Woodward line and other public transportation efforts happen. Until recently, those leaders have largely been operating on their own.

“We really can’t keep going like this with all these systems being developed in isolation,” she said.

While costs for commuter trains will be steep, Donigan said such a public transportation system is not an impossible sell to voters. “I believe people will pay more for transportation if they feel they’re getting something of value for it,” she said.

So what will push public transportation forward in metro Detroit this time, when there have been so many failures in the past? In a word, it will have to be cooperation, Hertel said. He recalled the willingness by both the Ford and Carter administrations to give $600 million to this region to create a public transportation system 30-some years ago.

“There was a reason we did not get that money,” Hertel said, pointing to a disconnect between City of Detroit officials and those in the suburbs. “We could not collaborate. We could not agree. That money went somewhere else.”

Hayes Jones

Hayes Jones, general manager of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), the suburban bus system, says efforts to create a public transportation system have a different feel this time. Officials from the city and suburbs want “complete connectivity” in the region — a sentiment that comes out of need.

“For the first time, a consensus is building among local elected officials that public transit is essential to this region’s survival,” Jones said.

SMART, which plans to install informational kiosks at bus stops to assist riders, expects to give 12 million rides this year — 40 percent of them to Detroiters. Thirty-five percent of those people have been riding for less than one year, he said.

In a SEMCOG promotional video for public transit called “Get on Board,” Jones says ridership hasn’t been this high since the early 1980s.

The Detroit Department of Transportation, DDOT, also has seen vast ridership increases — signaling a thirst for public transportation.

“For DDOT, the ridership has increased 25 percent over the last year,” said DDOT Director Lovette Williams. “Yes, gas prices went down, but we don’t see ridership going down.”

To improve bus service, DDOT is upgrading bus stop signs to provide more information to riders, such as where buses are going, and is constructing the $18.3 million Rosa Parks Transit Center, which will have bays for both SMART and DDOT buses, Williams said. Conveniences such as coffee shops will be part of the center on Cass.

“Passengers can get on any system they want to get on,” Williams said. DDOT also is conducting focus groups to learn how bus service can be improved, she said. “We really want to be more customer-focused. We figure if we give them what they want, we’re going to keep them as riders.”

Better-utilized bus service would relieve road congestion and bring the environmental benefit of reduced pollution from fewer single-passenger vehicles on the road. Eighty-five percent of metro Detroiters drive to work alone, according to SEMCOG statistics.

“Every full bus eliminates 60 vehicles on the road,” Jones said.

The need for public transportation in metro Detroit has become great enough that it’s drawing support from those with strong ties to the auto industry — at a time when auto sales are a mere shadow of their former selves.

Edsel B. Ford II, the great-grandson of Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford, heads up One D, a group of six regional civic organizations aimed at fostering cooperation between metro Detroit’s governmental and private entities to make the region competitive in the global economy. At the SEMCOG meeting in Sterling Heights last month, Ford said public transit is one of One D’s cornerstones.

“I probably should be standing here asking you to go buy some cars,” Ford quipped. “[But] research tells us that talent migrates to [regions] with a transit system. We need to think, work and act as a region and have a passion for collaboration.”

So, what would metro Detroit’s public transportation look like?

The final details still are being hammered out, but several commuter trains could be added to a mix that now only includes bus systems. Metro Detroit once had such service — known as the Inter-Urban trains — but that system, which took Detroiters to suburbs such as Birmingham and Rochester and beyond, was demolished after World War II.

One of the new train lines being considered is the Detroit-Metro Airport-Ann Arbor Commuter Train. It would link Detroit at New Center to Dearborn, Metro Airport in Romulus, Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. The train would run along the same rail track that now carries Amtrak trains between Pontiac, Detroit and Chicago.

SEMCOG, which is leading planning for the project, is seeking to provide four to eight trips for commuters going to work, the universities, hospitals, sports stadiums and other locations. SEMCOG now is negotiating with Norfolk-Southern Railroad and Canadian National Railroad, which own the tracks, to determine which safety improvements will need to be made.

“We’ve begun the process of securing railcars and locomotives,” said Carmine Palumbo, director of transportation programs for SEMCOG. The group plans to buy used railcars or lease them. SEMCOG is shooting for an October 25, 2010, opening of the rail line.

Another rail line being considered is the Washtenaw-Livingston Commuter Train, affectionately dubbed “Wally.” The 27-mile line would connect Ann Arbor to Livingston County communities, ending at Howell, and is aimed at alleviating traffic on congested U.S. 23.

Great Lakes Central Railroad would operate the service and provide the rail line, expected to be up and running in 2010, with a 16-month construction period. The University of Michigan and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have agreed to purchase passes for their workers in the first year.

Consultant RL Banks & Associates, hired by a coalition including the Michigan Department of Transportation, Washtenaw County and other entities, has concluded $32.5 million in rail improvements and $7 million in operations would be needed initially to allow for train speeds up to 59 mph.

Steve Maynard, mayor pro-tem of Howell, contrasted that to the $300 million to $500 million it would cost to expand U.S. 23. “We say that’s a pretty good payoff,” he said.

The train would make four departures from Ann Arbor and back each day. Buses would be dedicated to carrying passengers from the end of the line in Ann Arbor to the U-M hospitals and other destinations.

Maynard said the line would allow residents of Livingston County bedroom communities to tap into U-M’s knowledge-based jobs.

“I have a lot of concern about our ability to retain our residential base, because people need to be where the jobs are,” he said.

The Detroit Woodward line, known as The Regional Area Initial Link (TRAIL), is being supported by an all-star cast of metro Detroit financial powerhouses, including Gilbert, Penske, Peter Karmanos of Compuware Corp. and the Ilitch family. The line would have a dozen stops, with major destinations including Campus Martius Park, Wayne State University, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Medical Center and the Amtrak station.

The City of Detroit, through DDOT, has been pushing for its own line along Woodward, to the State Fairgrounds at the Oakland County border. The eight-mile line would cost about $370 million to build, according to advocacy group Transportation Riders United, with federal funds paying about half of construction costs.

The line, which would open around 2013, would be unnecessary if the TRAIL project is completed, Transportation Riders United has concluded.

Melissa Roy, senior director of government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber, said getting a public transit system in place in metro Detroit is among the chamber’s top and longest-unrealized goals.

“I’ve been hearing about transit plans my whole life,” said Roy. “We’ve been working on transit for 100 years as the chamber. It is the foundation of an economy. It really facilitates the movement of everything you need to function in an economy.”

The continual talk about getting such a system in place, coupled with the inability to get it done, “has really left us behind the rest of the country,” Roy said.

“This is becoming even more of an economic development issue than it was in the past. All of your new-economy young adults are going to places with a transit system.”

That means Michigan’s best and brightest young minds will be solving problems in Boston or Chicago, not Detroit. And the lack of public transportation is not only a workforce problem.

“The same thing holds true for tourism,” Roy said. “ This is the way you roll out the welcome mat for new people to your area.”

The nation now is looking at public transit as part of the larger picture of improving the overall transportation network to remain globally competitive, Roy said. “We haven’t reinvested in the infrastructure system since Eisenhower,” she said, adding that the Europeans and Chinese have invested trillions of dollars in their infrastructure, to their benefit. “There’s a national push to look to the transportation system and change what we’re investing in.”

The federal transportation bill is up for reauthorization in September 2009, and every region of the country is positioning itself to get federal funds.

“Hands down, the Great Lakes region brings in more trade value than any other region of the country,“ Roy said. “We have a great trade corridor connected with the Canadians through the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is a huge advantage to Detroit and our access to the global marketplace.”

In terms of the public transit piece of the puzzle for this region, Roy sees the investment of private funds along the Woodward corridor as a key catalyst in finally making something happen. It’s the ingredient that’s been missing in the past, she said.

Another ally of public transit for this region — although it’s something few people see as a positive — is last summer’s gas price spike, Roy said. While people may have been willing to live without public transit when gas cost $3 a gallon, the leap to well over $4 a gallon seems to have finally nudged the nation onto the public transit train.

“The gas prices have really made the case for the average citizen, and now that they’re down (under $2) are people still worried?” Roy asked, rhetorically. “Yeah, because nobody sees this as the end-all for gas prices.”

Metro Detroiters and consumers throughout the rest of the nation are holding their collective breath, awaiting the return of higher oil prices. Many expect the pain at the pump to return at the first sign of a turnaround in the global financial meltdown.

The energy wants of long-time big consumers such as the United States, along with those of emerging nations such as China and India, are expected to continue the upward pressure on pricing.

“There’s only so much supply and a whole lot of demand,” Roy said.

Doug Henze is a freelance writer and former business reporter for the Oakland Press in Pontiac.