Ann Arbor mayor: Commuter rail to Detroit can happen in 3 years with regional support

Nick Tobier and his 3-year-old son Oscar weren't planning on getting on a train Friday, but after passing by the railcar parked in downtown Ann Arbor, they had to check it out.

"It's fantastic, we love it," Tobier said, while Oscar offered a one-word review of the refurbished railcar for the proposed Ann Arbor-to-Detroit commuter rail service: "Good."

"We're really big supporters of public transit and anything that links Ann Arbor to Detroit," said Tobier, an Ann Arbor resident who teaches at the University of Michigan. "I work with schools in Detroit, so I'm in Detroit anywhere from three to five days a week, and I would be very happy not to drive.

"And we as a family are in Detroit for many things on the weekends, so we'd take it all the time — a Tigers game or Eastern Market. Plus the social aspect of the train is nice."

Friday's unveiling of the railcar took place in advance of the Mayor's Green Fair in downtown Ann Arbor, and it marked the first-ever public display of the commuter railcar.

It's one of a number of railcars being refurbished for two proposed commuter rail services — the east-west Ann Arbor-to-Detroit line and the north-south WALLY line linking Ann Arbor and Howell.

Representatives from the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan Department of Transportation, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and others were on hand for the railcar's unveiling on Friday.

Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje emphasized that Ann Arbor-to-Detroit commuter rail is the focus right now, and WALLY is something that might happen years down the road.

"WALLY is still a viable plan, but it is not my emphasis," he said. "It is not something I think is going to happen anytime soon, but I think it is something we will turn to at some point down the road, and it is probably a good thing to continue long-range planning for."

As for the proposed service between Ann Arbor and Detroit, Hieftje said he's expecting that to be a project that the new Southeast Michigan Regional Transportation Authority takes up.

"This isn't Ann Arbor's project," he said. "This is the state of Michigan's project. This is the Southeast Michigan RTA's project. And we're one of the willing participants — along with all the cities along the line. Everybody's enthusiastic about it. But we have no plan to put general fund money into this."

Hieftje said it's his expectation that the RTA will be the controlling organization if Ann Arbor-to-Detroit commuter rail service is going to move forward.

"This project is frankly going to need the support of the Regional Transit Authority that has just been made real by the state," he said. "We've been working with them and we will continue to work with them, and we are having some real positive conversations coming out of the work that we've been doing. And if it's embraced by the RTA, this can become a reality in a few years."

Hieftje stressed it's nothing Ann Arbor can do on its own.

"But it's something we can do working with cities like Dearborn, working with MDOT," he said, "and working with the city of Ypsilanti, where the leaders there have told me they expect 700 to 900 people would move into downtown Ypsilanti over just a few years so they could get off in Ann Arbor at work in about 10 minutes.

"That is economic development and that is what can happen when you have a new rail hub established that has easy access to a major employment center."

SEMCOG Executive Director Paul Tait, who lives in Ypsilanti, said he commutes to work in Detroit and he'd love to use the proposed commuter rail service.

"We can feel it, taste it, and soon ride it, so I'm pretty excited," he said, saying it's getting "real close" to becoming a reality.

"In the very near future, we're looking at event trains that will help create the buzz for the service that we're talking about," he said. "Full service, we're probably yet a couple years off in the future."

He noted MDOT has secured hundreds of millions of federal dollars to do some major track upgrades that will make not only Amtrak function better, but also Ann Arbor-to-Detroit commuter rail.

"This has been a long time coming," he said. "Not because of a lack of hard work, but because there are just a gazillion that we all have to get through to make this work."

After calling Hieftje the "strongest advocate for rail probably anywhere in the state of Michigan," Tait went on to talk about the economic benefits of rail. He noted there are 10 different college campuses, as well as major medical centers, along the corridor.

"For the young knowledge-based workers that we need for the future success of our economy, transit — particularly rail transit — is at the very top of their list of amenities they want," he said. "So this is a huge step forward for attracting that worker of the future."

The proposed line would run from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, Metro Airport, Dearborn and Detroit, where it would link with the new Woodward Line.

"The University of Michigan has identified 10,900 of their employees who live in a zip code along that rail line," Hieftje said. "In Ypsilanti, there are 4,000 people with an Ypsilanti zip code who work just at the U of M. This doesn't include the private employers."

Hieftje said the latest estimate he's heard is that it should be about another two and a half to three years before Amtrak trains are going over 100 mph all the way from Detroit to Chicago. He noted that will be on newly refurbished tracks with all sorts of places for trains to pass each other, and with MDOT and Amtrak in control of the track, it will become much more dependable.

"I don't know — maybe we'll see a doubling (of train ridership) in three or four years as people recognize it's dependable, it's fast, and it's a much better alternative to flying," he said.

Hieftje said the University of Michigan has pledged to be a partner as the city continues work on a new train station somewhere in the city, possibly on Fuller Road.

"And I want to be very clear, that is with 80 percent federal funding, which is a great thing, but the university is one of our partners in that and will help us to come up with matching funds," he said, mentioning MDOT and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority as other potential partners.

Hieftje said he's happy with the pushed-back schedule the Ann Arbor Station project is on, because once Amtrak's new high-speed rail service is up and running on brand-new trains between Detroit and Chicago, he's expecting ridership to increase significantly. He thinks that will make it easier to sell the idea of a train station to Ann Arbor voters, who get to decide if the project goes forward.

"It's going to be pretty evident to everybody that a station that is already the busiest one in the state is overwhelmed by the traffic and we're going to need to move ahead on that," he said. "So all of those things are coming together in the future and I think it is fortuitous for us all. In a way, rail is kind of going back to the past, but it's going to be going back to the past with wi-fi."

AATA Chairman Charles Griffith reiterated on Friday that AATA has been a partner in the planning for rail service for the Ann Arbor community, though he said: "We're not yet a rail operator."

"But we clearly see rail as the next level of transit for our region, especially as more and more of our citizens come to expect modern, advanced transportation options as a basic service in the community in which they live," he said. "We see it as a key for economic development in our community."

State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, was among the crowd of about four dozen people who took a tour of the rail car during a special unveiling event Friday afternoon.

"It's very cool. The prospect of seeing commuter rail in Southeast Michigan is absolutely nothing short of awesome," Zemke said. "We all know the economic development benefits behind having rail, and bringing more people into Ann Arbor and giving people the opportunity go into Detroit cheaply, easily and efficiently is phenomenal. I'm absolutely excited."

Zemke has introduced a bill that would amend the state law that created the RTA. The purpose of the bill is to get rid of a clause that gives any one member of the RTA board veto power over rail.

"Basically right now, rail in Southeast Michigan is very difficult to get under the RTA because you have to have 100 percent unanimous consent of all board members," he said. "We introduced a bill to make it a simple majority, the same as other transit project decisions within the RTA.

"We think that's fair, and the bottom line is that will allow these other communities in the RTA — for instance, Detroit, Wayne County, Ann Arbor — to work together and do something that may not affect the other entities, but still definitely affects mass transit in Southeast Michigan."

Hieftje said even if the changes Zemke has proposed don't pass, he thinks there's going to be support on the RTA board for Ann Arbor-to-Detroit commuter rail.

"It makes so much more sense than the bus rapid transit, which actually is very, very expensive — hundreds of of millions of dollars to install," he said. "The infrastructure for this commuter rail line is being paid for by the federal dollars."

Hieftje was adamantly opposed to having Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County included in the RTA last year, but that's no longer the case.

"What's happened is we've had some good conversations," he said. "We pushed our case. I'm accepting reality here. It's obvious the state is not going to let us out, and the governor is really behind the RTA, so we don't have a choice there. And since we are in the RTA, we want to do everything we can to make it a success, so we're very pragmatic about it."

Hieftje added, "I've had some very good conversations with leaders of the RTA, and also leadership in the other counties. I've met with people from Oakland and Macomb, and we've had some good conversations, and I believe there's some synergy moving forward."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.