MARTA was a success in Atlanta.
Via FOX News
There’s a lot riding on Detroit’s new transit system.
After seven years of planning, work on the ambitious $140 million light rail project started this week amid charges that it already is an antiquated and ‘expensive boondoggle’ that fails to benefit the city’s low-income residents.
Still, city officials are hopeful that the 3.3-mile project connecting the city’s primary job center with key cultural and entertainment hubs will be an economic boon for Detroit which has been battered by fiscal decay and the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
The M-1 Rail will eventually connect three neighborhoods and stretch from the city’s north end to the south. After several starts and stops, the project, already $12 million over budget, is expected to be operational by late 2016.
Concerns remain about the project’s price tag, particularly in a city that struggles to provide basic services, and whether it can really attract a steady stream of passengers in a place where parking is abundant. The Motor City, after all, loves its cars. The project is partly propped up by federal taxpayers.
The line, though, is set to launch around the time the new $650 million Detroit Red Wings arena, as well as other downtown businesses and entertainment hot spots, are scheduled to open their doors. The goal for the Motor City is simple: make Detroit as attractive and accessible as possible to residents and visitors in the hope it will jump-start the local economy.
The project would be Detroit’s first streetcar line since its transit system was dismantled in the 1950s. It’s projected to create about 2,000 new jobs. The M-1 Rail – a curbside loop powered mostly by overhead electrical lines – is expected to carry 6,000 passengers per day, serving 12 stops.
The new streetcars will operate along the Woodward Corridor, which is an area within metro Detroit. M-1 will connect Detroit’s downtown, midtown and New Center areas — all of which have been economically hard-hit in recent years but are now at the epicenter of Detroit’s revitalization efforts.
Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., has been a big supporter of the project from the start. He believes the rail line will attract new businesses and says the transit system will give Detroiters “additional, affordable mass transport options.”
But can it survive?
Oddly, the transit system will be operated — at least at first — almost entirely on an honor system for the $1.50-per-ride fee. It’s a move some argue might not be the wisest for a city that’s been a poster child for corruption in recent years.