Railroad Forums
Michigan Central Station
- Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman
by NJTRailfan
As I sit here in Baghdad Iraq with the 101st. Are there any plans of restoring the Terminal? Does Amtrak plan to move back or are they happy with their current station because it's closer to the city? I heard that theres quite a few places out in the area where MCS is that are historic but abandoned like the Post Office and the Roosevelt Hotel. What are the plans of restoring MCS? I heard the plan of turing it into the Detriot Police HQ was abandoend and that there was something else in the works like the idea of a light rail for the city. I heard that a light rail could take people from Downtown Detriot to the Airport (DTW) and possible the new Tiger Stadium, and then to MCS. How close to the Airport or downtown is MCS and is the Station on the way to the airport or downtown?
"And remember, you can make a difference."
John Walsh (America's Most Wanted)
John Walsh (America's Most Wanted)
by latonyco
I am surprised that no one with more localized information has not responded to this post. The last that I learned was that the idea of using the terminal building for the headquarters of the Detroit Police Department was given up on due to the excessive cost of its rehabilitation.
It is too bad that a civic or volunteer orginazation could not undertake a program to revitalize the terminal. A similar program has been ongoing for about eight years at the Central Terminal in Buffalo. That group is making great strides in saving that facility and making it useful once again. Hopefully, something like that can be done for this great landmark before it is too late.
Being located so far away from Detroit, I'm sure that there are reasons which I am not aware of as to why this cannot be done here. But, as always, I live in hope.
It is too bad that a civic or volunteer orginazation could not undertake a program to revitalize the terminal. A similar program has been ongoing for about eight years at the Central Terminal in Buffalo. That group is making great strides in saving that facility and making it useful once again. Hopefully, something like that can be done for this great landmark before it is too late.
Being located so far away from Detroit, I'm sure that there are reasons which I am not aware of as to why this cannot be done here. But, as always, I live in hope.
by Tadman
A few problems with restoring MCS:
1. Detroit is BROKE.
2. Nobody lives in downtown Detroit, unlike Chicago or NYC.
3. Hardly anybody works in downtown Detroit unless you're with GM.
4. MCS isn't exactly downtown - it's a five minute drive (on deserted streets) from downtown.
So while I hate to see it waste away, I can't see the city funding it, the local industry is on its way down, and nobody wants to use it anyway. Google the MCS and you'll find some neato sites about urban exploring there.
1. Detroit is BROKE.
2. Nobody lives in downtown Detroit, unlike Chicago or NYC.
3. Hardly anybody works in downtown Detroit unless you're with GM.
4. MCS isn't exactly downtown - it's a five minute drive (on deserted streets) from downtown.
So while I hate to see it waste away, I can't see the city funding it, the local industry is on its way down, and nobody wants to use it anyway. Google the MCS and you'll find some neato sites about urban exploring there.
The new Acela: It's not Aveliable.
by carajul
Does Amtrak still serve Detriot, MI? I just learned of and saw pics of the huge Michigan Central Station. They said Amtrak abandoned the place in 1988. What was this station like in Amtrak days? Was the tower above it used for offices? Info please...
by AgentSkelly
Yes, they still serve Detriot, but with a different building: http://snow.prohosting.com/usarail/detroit.htm
MCS is a great terminal, but as I recall like Buffalo Central Terminal in Buffalo, NY it was under-utilized and cost a pretty penny to operate, so they built another station.
MCS is a great terminal, but as I recall like Buffalo Central Terminal in Buffalo, NY it was under-utilized and cost a pretty penny to operate, so they built another station.
by bratkinson
The typographical errors in spelling Detroit in this thread have me rolling on the floor!
30+ years ago, (hard to believe it was that long already), I wrote a large number of computer screens for city hall while there on a contract and CITY OF DETRIOT appeard on only a few of them!
I still catch myself mistyping the name now and then. Fortunately for my fumble fingers, I moved away from Detroit in 1975!
30+ years ago, (hard to believe it was that long already), I wrote a large number of computer screens for city hall while there on a contract and CITY OF DETRIOT appeard on only a few of them!
I still catch myself mistyping the name now and then. Fortunately for my fumble fingers, I moved away from Detroit in 1975!
by Engineer James
Yes, I used to live on the near the line Amtrak Used. NS from Detroit to Kalamazoo....
Served by 4 trains daily, 3 Wolverine and the Blue water, then u also have the Pere Marquette, but that now does not serve detroit.
MCS... No, Amtrak never used MCS, Conrail was the last opertor of MCS, and it is still in a major state of disrepair. Mr Mourn, who also owns the Trenton Railway, also the old Belle isle Toll bridge, which my become a new rail line to belle isle. there has been talk a lot of Detroit Police wanting to renovate the old building, but detroit is in a pickle when it comes to funds... so the plan was cancelled. In that plan, amtrak would have worked the lower 2 floors, and started using MCS, again, but the plans fell through.
My granddad worked for CR, and remembered the day they shut it down, because he was pulling the Admin cars after the ceremony....
Also, Detroit Terminal RR was also affected, when the station closed, and got absorbed into CR...
Served by 4 trains daily, 3 Wolverine and the Blue water, then u also have the Pere Marquette, but that now does not serve detroit.
MCS... No, Amtrak never used MCS, Conrail was the last opertor of MCS, and it is still in a major state of disrepair. Mr Mourn, who also owns the Trenton Railway, also the old Belle isle Toll bridge, which my become a new rail line to belle isle. there has been talk a lot of Detroit Police wanting to renovate the old building, but detroit is in a pickle when it comes to funds... so the plan was cancelled. In that plan, amtrak would have worked the lower 2 floors, and started using MCS, again, but the plans fell through.
My granddad worked for CR, and remembered the day they shut it down, because he was pulling the Admin cars after the ceremony....
Also, Detroit Terminal RR was also affected, when the station closed, and got absorbed into CR...
by 2nd trick op
Detroit, like Newark and the Bronx, suffered almost a complete meltdown from the urban unrest of the 1960's/70's. While there's still a very long way to go, it appears that some of the newer strategies in urban renewal, such as saving a few recoverable properties in an otherwise burned-out block, and encouraging entrepreneurship by building smaller properties which can be offered to business-oriented owners (buy three, live in one and rent the other two), can prevent the cycle of destroy-and-rebuild which sabotoged the large, sterile projects of the 1950's.
Road-atlas maps of Metro Detroit now tend to cover the entire Southeasten Michigan region, and to focus as much on Ann Arbor, with its high student/transient popuplation, as on the Detroit inner city which, nevertheless, with a growing "anchor" of institutions downtown, has advanced past the most difficult part of the renewal process.
Years ago Detroit even had one "commuter" line, on the former Grand Trunk and running as far out as Durand, Mich. It lasted until some time in the 1980's. Unfortunately, mass transit is a hard sell in this most auto-oriented of the major cities, (Remember, most of the growth came after the automotive boom, so Detroit lacks the core of high-density housing common in the older communities), and some of the experiments, such as the "people mover" aren't very compatible with more typical methods of transit. Barring rapid development of a non-fossil-fuel personal vehicle, Detroit may be dragged, kicking and screaming, toward a new transit system.
Now, about that baseball team.......
Road-atlas maps of Metro Detroit now tend to cover the entire Southeasten Michigan region, and to focus as much on Ann Arbor, with its high student/transient popuplation, as on the Detroit inner city which, nevertheless, with a growing "anchor" of institutions downtown, has advanced past the most difficult part of the renewal process.
Years ago Detroit even had one "commuter" line, on the former Grand Trunk and running as far out as Durand, Mich. It lasted until some time in the 1980's. Unfortunately, mass transit is a hard sell in this most auto-oriented of the major cities, (Remember, most of the growth came after the automotive boom, so Detroit lacks the core of high-density housing common in the older communities), and some of the experiments, such as the "people mover" aren't very compatible with more typical methods of transit. Barring rapid development of a non-fossil-fuel personal vehicle, Detroit may be dragged, kicking and screaming, toward a new transit system.
Now, about that baseball team.......
by gt7348b
Actually, there's a topic about Detroit COmmuter Rail over on the General Commuter Board: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 0d45991efc
Also, I read somewhere that Amtrak also operated a commuter rail type service between Ann Arbor and Detroit until sometime in the '80s
Also, I read somewhere that Amtrak also operated a commuter rail type service between Ann Arbor and Detroit until sometime in the '80s
Atlanta - within two and a half hours of . . . the edge of its suburbs
by GeorgeF
2nd trick op wrote:Years ago Detroit even had one "commuter" line, on the former Grand Trunk and running as far out as Durand, Mich. It lasted until some time in the 1980's. Unfortunately, mass transit is a hard sell in this most auto-oriented of the major cities, (Remember, most of the growth came after the automotive boom, so Detroit lacks the core of high-density housing common in the older communities), and some of the experiments, such as the "people mover" aren't very compatible with more typical methods of transit. Barring rapid development of a non-fossil-fuel personal vehicle, Detroit may be dragged, kicking and screaming, toward a new transit system.The commuter line died quickly after the Chrysler plant just north of Detroit closed down; it was a major destination point. I rode the line after that closure, and patronage was very light, indeed.