Since the announcement that Detroit would no longer pursue light rail along Woodward Avenue in favor of regional rapid bus transit reactions have run the gamut, from angry outrage to pragmatic support to mass transit hostility. Now, with talks of building 3.4 miles of track along Woodward anyway, columnist Jeff T. Wattrick offers more clear-headed thinking about what should be considered.
Excerpt:
"If, after a 90-day study, all parties can agree on a plan that allows both the BRT and light rail lines to run concurrently south of Grand Boulevard, and if they reach accord on how it will be funded and governed, then perhaps a kind of grand bargain has been struck.
These things are never perfect, but at least all parties would get some kind of win.
The M1 investors will get to build their curbside downtown “rail circulator,” with all their hopes for economic development, and commuters will get the truly regional rapid transit system that metro Detroit has lacked since the once-celebrated streetcar system was exported to Mexico City."
Read the rest
here.
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