Detroit hopes for streetcar revitalization

[finehoe]

...a $180 million project to run streetcars along a 3.3-mile stretch of Woodward Avenue, one of the city's main arteries...

...the permanence of a streetcar will send a stronger signal of confidence in the city's future than merely buying a few more buses, and he expects the project to generate $3.5 billion of economic activity with thousands more apartments being built.

Others worry M-1 will encounter a similar fate to the People Mover, a 1980s-vintage, 2.9-mile monorail that loops through downtown. It was intended as the first stage of a regional transit system that never materialized. These days, it is pretty empty.

During one recent lunchtime journey around the full loop, no passengers at all boarded one of its two cars at 10 of the 13 stations. Metzger said M-1 must connect to a regional system to avoid that fate. A referendum to fund such a system is planned for next fall.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/detroit-hopes-streetcar-project-can-help-fuel-its-renaissance/2015/07/31/95027dfc-2fdc-11e5-8f36-18d1d501920d_story.html

[strider]

What I found interesting driving up Woodward by the construction was how much it seemed to fit.  That area was pretty much built up around the street car system originally so that having it back is simply the way it should be. I suspect it will indeed be a example of how street car is truly supposed to work.

[thelakelander]

Yes, it is a real estate deal and there's nothing wrong with that. Not integrating fixed public transit with complementing land use policy is one of the main reasons for the failure of the People Mover and its sibling, the JTA Skyway, too this point.  People like Gilbert would not be investing millions of their own cash into bringing a streetcar down Woodward if it was not proven that it raises real estate land values and creates TOD opportunities. There is money to be made and the result will be a live, active and vibrant district in the heart of a city that's been bleeding population since the 1950s. Seems like a winner, regardless of whether the riders and people living and spending money in the neighborhood are white, black, green or blue. Anyway, funny they refer to the People Mover as "vintage".  If it's vintage, what is the Skyway?

[finehoe]

When the Skyway was first built, it too was called the "People Mover".

[thelakelander]

Yes, along with Miami's Metromover, the Detroit People Mover and JTA Skyway were funded under the Urban Mass Transit Administration's (UMTA) Downtown Peoplemover Program.