Detroit LRT plan is adjusted
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefBackers of Detroit’s planned Woodward Avenue light rail transit line now say the line won’t open until 2015, two years later than originally expected. But the line will open in its entirety, and not in segments, under the new schedule.
“Our goal is to have an operating system and be operating the entire system by 2015,” said city CFO Normal White.
The 9.3-mile line is being advanced by a private/public partnership involving the Detroit Department of Transportation and the M1 corporation, the latter including representatives of Penske Corp., Quicken Loans, Inc., and Quickens subsidiary Rock Financial. The private sector has pledged $125 million to help fund the $450 million project.
White said a major factor for the change in plans involved a permanent maintenance facility north of Grand Boulevard; earlier plans for constructing a temporary facility at another site was determined to be a questionable expenditure of funds.
