Mass transit isn't exactly new news around here. It's popped up my radar several times:
From Reason TV on YouTube:
Reason TV also had this related video back in March of this year: 3 Reasons Why Obama's High-Speed Rail Will Go Nowhere Fast
Since Reason mentioned the ironically-named People Mover in Detroit, I had this last year on that very topic: Detroit Free Press: Make transit bigger part of stimulus plan
- Granholm has a fever, and the only prescription is more rail
- High-Speed Rail Between Detroit and Chicago Is A Pipe Dream
- High-Speed Rail Between Detroit and Chicago - Part Deux
- High-Speed Rail Between Detroit and Chicago?
- Detroit Free Press: Make transit bigger part of stimulus plan
From Reason TV on YouTube:
Here's the video:The Motor City is moving ahead with a plan to build a 9.3-mile light rail line that will run from downtown Detroit to the edge of the suburbs. It'll cost an estimated $500 million. Three-quarters of the bill will be paid by federal taxpayers, with the rest picked up by a consortium of foundations and businesses.
If built, the project will end up on the Mackinac Center's list of government-subsidized white elephants touted as "crucial to Detroit's comeback," its "rebirth," and pivotal to "turning things around." In reality, it'll just be another train to nowhere, much like Detroit's existing light rail line, the unfortunately named "People Mover," which operates at 2.5% of capacity.
Reason TV also had this related video back in March of this year: 3 Reasons Why Obama's High-Speed Rail Will Go Nowhere Fast
Since Reason mentioned the ironically-named People Mover in Detroit, I had this last year on that very topic: Detroit Free Press: Make transit bigger part of stimulus plan
Henry Payne has some thought on the Woodward corridor light rail boondoggle, which gets at my above assertion that only a few rich businessmen will benefit from it: Why Detroit rail? Because key businessmen demand itHasn't the people mover been just an expensive failure for 20 years now? Why yes. Yes it has! Here's a story from the Macinac Center: The Detroit People Mover Still Serves as "a Rich Folks' Roller Coaster" (subline: A poor city subsidizes 20 years of failure) From that article:
Operating at 2.5% capacity - A sick joke on taxpayers More than a year before People Mover opened in 1987, Time magazine printed an unflattering preview of the coming attraction titled "Horizontal Elevator to Nowhere." Estimating the project to be a year late and 50 percent over budget, Time detailed numerous defects and problems, with the most notable mistake being the decision to build it at all. One Detroit resident was quoted as saying that it was "a rich folks' roller coaster," and a Reagan administration transit chief predicted that it could become "the least cost-effective transit project in the last 20 years." The People Mover has repeatedly revisited these themes as if they were stations on its tiny circuit.Read the whole thing (hint: it goes downhill from there). So what say we scrap the whole People Mover concept and go with simple rail at or below ground level. Like Amtrak. Since, you know, Amtrak has such a great track (pun intended!) record (no profit whatsoever in 2 generations!). This is exactly what happens when government runs anything (social security, medicare, medicaid, Post Office, etc. ad infinitum!)
...Convinced that Detroit is a dysfunctional city, these men are not out to save all 138 square miles of Detroit, but to make its downtown a livable, safe, trendy urban center that will put Detroit back on the map as a destination city.Read the rest. More on the boondoggle at The Michigan View:
Their pan stands on three legs:
1. Locate top corporate HQs in Detroit, forcing young coupes and singles to work downtown. Dan Gilbert, the feisty founder of Quicken Loans is the latest CEO to bring his employees in, joining Karmanos' Compuware and, of course, GM in the RenCen.
2. Consolidate all Detroit sports teams in the Circus Park area, creating an economy of scale with the Wings, Lions, Tigers, Pistons and accompanying entertainment events that will attract dozens of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. After the Yuppies emerge from work, this theory goes, they will go to the sports/entertainment complex, dine, and ultimately want to locate downtown " Chicago-style - for its vibrant urban nightlife. Ilitch is currently negotiating the purchase of the Pistons " with the design of moving them from Auburn Hills to join in a new stadium shared with the Wings.
3. Build Woodward light rail connecting waterfront GM to Compuware HQ to the stadiums to Wayne State university to Midtown to Royal Oak. This "spine" is the glue that connects downtown to suburb " the "hip" transport that will propel Yuppies from their condos, their schools, their workplace.
That's the dream. Backed by an extraordinary $125 million raised by the Big Four in order to get an initial $125 million in matching federal funds. Your funds..
- Howe's: Gilbert's master plan
- Crain's: Where the dough comes from
- Detroit boondoggle? $500 million for light rail
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