SEMCOG’s Carmine Palombo talks trains in Ypsi

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 | Source: Mark Maynard's Blog

Trains, stations and automobiles were the focus of a recent commuter rail talk in Ypsilanti.

Excerpt:

I don’t have a lot of time tonight, but I attended this evening’s Ypsilanti Planning Commission meeting, which was largely about the east-west rail line, and I wanted to pass along my notes. So, here are the highlights, as I heard them. Make of them what you will. And feel free to add comments, questions, etc.

• Carmine Palumbo, the Director of Transportation Programs for SEMCOG, laid out the high-level vision for the proposed Ann Arbor - Detroit rail line, which would make use of the tracks currently running between Pontiac and Chicago. There would be five stops along the line. Ann Arbor and Detroit would be the ends of the line, with stops at Dearborn, Metro Airport and Ypsilanti in between.

• According to Palumbo, SEMCOG is presently in negotiations with the three companies that own segments of track along that route. They are (from west to east) Norfolk Southern, Conrad Shared Assets, and Canadian National. (Canadian National owns all the track between Dearborn and the New Center in Detroit, which would be the end of this line.)

Read the rest of the story here.