Detroit wrote:SEMTA did not use any streetcar lines, as they would have been long gone by that later time. SEMTA merely ran a commuter-rail operation on regular railroad trackage from Pontiac to near the old Brush Street depot (terminus).
And the trains would never have gone into the Detroit River because the ROW made a 90-degree turn to the east (inbound) around Orleans Street or whatever and then went parallel to the river.
Within the last year, the city of Detroit converted the former ROW along the Dequindre Cut (the former moat that was about forty feet below grade from Eastern Market to near the river) into a bicycle-jogging park. This tree-overgrown and trash-filled moat formerly was a home to dozens of Detroit's rummies and bums. At night, they could have been used as look-alike extras in shooting the "Night of the Living Dead" movie... The rails are now LONG GONE, as the former Tiger's play-by-play announcer--Ernie Harwell--might say.
It is remotely possible for rail to return, but that is extremely doubtful. Mayor Bing said yesterday that Detroit might have to file for bankruptcy soon, possibly after 70 days when its remaining funds are expected to be LONG GONE also (even after it fires over 1000 of its 14,000 highly unionized "workers"). Before Draconian cost-cutting was planned, the city and its DPS school district had combined deficits of around $800 million for the current fiscal year. DPS's state-appointed financial manager said last month that it is still $259 million short and would probably have to file for bankruptcy within a year.
Sorry to burst any misplaced bubbles of hope, but the city of Detroit and its downtown are both way beyond hope as active business centers, teeming with passengers. And that prognosis would have been much the same for anytime during the past 2 1/2 decades since SEMTA last ran.
Detroit had a 30-year boom period at the beginning of the Twentieth Century that was followed by 80 years of busting thereafter to the present, save for the few WWII years. By 1947, even the Ford Motor Company was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy then, but the Ford family continued to go on, after the death of Henry Ford that year.
The city of Pontiac is also broke and will likely go bankrupt at almost any time now. Currently, the "town-island" city of Highland Park within the city of Detroit has been bankrupt for several years, and other Detroit suburbs are also mulling over possible bankruptcies within the next decade.
It's been a bit since I've visited Detroit, about a year now, but last time I visited the tourism and entertainment sector was doing much better than any other part of the economy. That's specifically why I was wishing for a Renaissance Center/Brush Street Station - easy connections to the Detroit People Mover (ironically one of the safer areas in downtown, which is itself safer than most would imagine) and very close to the entertainment districts of Greektown, the Cobo/Joe Louis complex, the stadiums and casinos near Grand Circus and the tunnel bus to Windsor. Incidentally, I don't know where the streetcar business came up, but I'd meant a heavy rail connection from Atwater St. & St. Antoine St. (the Renaissance Center) to Jefferson Ave. & 10th St. just past Wayne County Community College, then under Fort, Lafayette and Rosa Parks to connect with the CP at Michigan Central Station. Probably won't happen, but it wouldn't be bad planning to leave a right-of-way once the Joe Louis Arena is taken down. (The Illitchs are still planning their new stadium, no? No word on a new lease deal, either at the Joe or the Palace?)
You're definitely correct on the pitiful state of Michigan's economy, though - I went to school in the UP for years, but came back to Minnesota to find work because there's nothing really in my field... or any field. My girlfriend is finishing her degree in the UP as well, and has already written off the state as a source of work. Same with many of my friends from the Detroit and Saginaw areas. I don't believe it's beyond hope, if the rest of the Rust Belt can reinvent itself so can Detroit and Michigan, but it has a long ways to go. Perhaps one way to go about it would be to apply for grants to improve rail service, since there seems to be at least an indirect correlation between progressive cities and effective transit.
