jeffinmichigan

I believe that NorthAndre is referring to the Campus Martius project in the center of Detroit. A quick glance of a map of Detroit will reveal that the city is laid out with several larges "spokes" that come together at a hub. At the center of that hub Campus Martius was recently reconfigured and created a public space out of the large expanse of pavement that was previously somewhat prohibitive to pedestrian traffic. Traffic is still maintained but it circulates around a "roundabout" of sorts that is actually in the shape of a diamond. It has created a great public space that also allows vehicular traffic flow. For once, Detroit seems to have done something right. Check out Google Earth images from the last several years to see "before and after" photos.

I don't know, Ken but the good news is that they are not on the road!

It sounds lik It sounds like WLW is playing to its base. Tell the people what they think they already know. It will help endear the scared little sheep to their loud-mouthed shepherd. WLW is so much like WJR in my home state. It was once a great station for the everyman: rich, poor, sportsfan, news-junkie, etc. Sure there were opinions but none of them shrill or overpowered by those who didn't tow the "company line." Now they have both become cess-pools of conservative talk. I am not likening my conservative friends to "cess" but I am making a statement of the state of talk radio in America. Sad. A friend of mine who listens to Rush (not the band, unfortunately) recently asked me, rhetorically, why liberal talk radio can't make a go of it in this country and I replied that liberals have better things to do than to sit around and listen to people reinforce what we believe (says the liberal posting on the internet at 11pm). I really believe that to be true, though. I formed my own opinions and beliefs and don't need some radio blowhard to help me feel better about those opinions.

^^What is a "massive juncture?^^ Perhaps they mean massive junction. Good ol' media!

From what I have heard, the St Louis and Kansan City Gateways are the primary interchange points between NS and Union Pacific. The former Wabash trackage from Fort Wayne to Decatur Ill. is, of course, that conduit. West of Decatur the line splits with one route by-passing St Louis altogether in favor of a Mississippi River crossing at Hanibal. This routing for traffic to and from points west potentially puts NS at a great competitive advantage as it simultaneously eliminates Chicago and St' Louis from the equation. The upshot of this is that the classification yard at Bellevue is perfectly situated to feed and be fed by this route and will most likely steal some of the traffic from the large hump yard at Elkhart. I would expect the line from Chicago to Cleveland via Toledo to continue to be an important line for UPS and domestic trailer traffic

I am impressed that the State of Michigan is chipping in that kind of money. This improvement will take place between the Detroit and Dearborn stations. From what I understand, the lion's share of that money will be used to rebuild a bridge deck over Junction Avenue. There have not been rails over the existing bridge in quite some time. The track work should actually be a small amount of money compared to the bridge, I imagine. The junction at which this work will be taking place is an at grade crossing of two lines and will prevent the passenger trains from having to travel through the diamond and then making a sharp turn to the north. The new track work will be a long, sweeping curve that will come from the west and join the CN tracks as they angle to the Northeast. This improvement should shave eight min. off the travel time between Detroit and Chicago. That may not sound like much but incremental improvements like this across the entire route will go a long way toward making the train option much more competitive with the Downtown to Downtown times of both driving and taking the plane.

Interesting to hear this rumor from you, too, KJP. You are the third source from whom I have heard that rumor. Once a rumor comes from so many different directions, there might be some truth to it!

K-Station is actually in the Fulton River Neighborhood which is directly west of River North...though just south of what's normally considered the WL. The cap over the freeway was built quite a long time ago. For awhile, they've just parked trailers and equipment over top of it. What they are doing now is cantilevering parts of the building over the cap to join up with the Halsted viaduct. K-Station...or Kinzie Station is a huge complex of buildings by the same developer, all of varying style, size and height, and residential type. The project also includes some retail and a full grocery store. These buildings have been elevated in future anticipation of Chicago getting light rail Future Light Rail ROW If it weren't for the fencing or gates, you could almost walk all the way to Navy Pier through the basements of these buildings Hopefully someday they'll build it. NorthAndre, there used to be a rail line operated by the Chicago North Western Railway which, essentially, ran along the north bank of the river. It crossed the North Branch and went under the Merchandise Mart-providing direct access for freight. There was a small yard, known as "State Street yard" underneath the IBM building. The tracks continued under the Sun-Times building where boxcars of newsprint were spotted for unloading. The tracks also went under Michigan Avenue on the north side of the Wrigley building. They continued past the south side of the base of the Tribune Tower and of course there was a siding there when the Trib was printed on site. The line terminated out on Navy Pier but also served North Pier on its way and ran down the right of way of Illinois street on its way there. I can't help but wonder if there is some vertical easement by which buildings built above this former RR ROW must abide. Perhaps Union Pacific, the corporate successor to the CNW still owns the Right of Way in order to be able to cash in on selling air rights for new development.

Was the wholesale destruction of a building built in 1956 really needed? Sure, the old building had few redeeming qualities from an aesthetic perspective but it just seems wasteful. Were there asbestos issues? Was the replacement of the HVAC system so expensive as to make it too costly to not build new? Was it impossible to wire the building for new technology? These are the only reasons I can envision that would justify tearing down a building that appeared to be in pretty good shape?

Bad news from Michigan in the ongoing pi$$ing match between the State of Michigan/Amtrak and Norfolk Southern. This time Norfolk Southern has once again lowered the speed limits on large portions of the line siting "poor tie conditions." This time it is mostly a large section west of Jackson, MI toward Battle Creek. Officially, management at MDOT is pretty tight-lipped about the status of the negotiations with NS re: the purchase of the line. Word from unofficial sources is that the devil is in the details of the agreement that was supposedly reached late last year. Apparently, from what I am hearing from sources inside Norfolk Southern, the current bone of contention is that MDOT/Amtrak don't want ALL of the side tracks and yard tracks that go along with the Mainline. NS doesn't want to pay for any of the upkeep of it if they don't own it. NS has, therefore, pulled-out its trump card and has lowered the speeds. These artificially low speed limits have more that cancelled-out any gains made by the 110mph running that was recently instituted west of Kalamazoo to Porter, IN. It should be interesting to see how this plays out but it is high time this little dance that the state of Michigan and Norfolk Southern have been doing for some time now come to an end.

Those are some great shots, NorthAndre. Of course, with the weather we've been having lately, it is a whole lot easier. I see you included what must be the offending McDonalds that sold you the shake in question. Judging by those photos it is easy to see that nobody likes to come downtown anymore!

I suspect that graduated licences are a factor these days, as well. My old (40) brain does not bother keeping up with all of the ins and outs of them but there are a lot of restrictions on drivers under the age of 18. In some states you cannot legally have your peers in the car with you and woe be unto you if you are caught driving after a certain hour! There is also not the need to physically be in the same space with someone in order to spend time with them. With skype and and live chat there are plenty of options for being social with peers that simply didn't exist in the '80s, when I was a kid. The comment above about the drag of driving in a bigger city, like Cleveland, as opposed to Athens rings true but that is only discovered through experience. A young kid who only really knows one or the other wouldn't know any better (or worse).

Repulsive. One need not be Catholic to be saddened by such beautiful buildings destroyed for no apparent reason. Shameful!

Andre, I am always happy to see your photos from my favorite city. I do have a few questions, though. What, exactly, will be extended over the I-94 ditch? Will it be parking structure, or revenue generating structure? Where was/is the Hotel Viceroy? What institution is building "La Casa" in Pilsen? UIC? Is that the old criminal courts building in the foreground of the photo of the twin hotel project? BTW, there can't be much surface parking left in the North Loop. Has the surface lot directly across from the Cathedral on State Street been developed? Love the photos and updates. Keep them coming!

What does that even mean? CTownsfinest216, left field is calling. It wants you back! I agree, Ken. I hope, for his sake, a brown bottle is to blame.

Years ago when Royal Oak was just becoming the hip place for people to be, I would see the GTW trains roaring through town on many a weekend evening. I often wished they had been passenger trains to whisk me to my destination after a few too many, shall we say "Vernors." Perhaps a better route for light rail in Royal Oak would be to peel off Woodward at Main St. and jog back over to Woodward at 11 Mile. By the same token, it should go up Old Woodward in Birmingham. However, if it did go up the GTW ROW it would be closer to the high density office and shopping area along Big Beaver Road.

While I'm thrilled to see Detroit's new-found love for things transit, this is not a wise extension. I mean, do you really think you're going to lure a car-driving culture like greater Detroiters to a 17 mile street trolley with a thousand stops? Just building a trolley line just to say they have transit isn't the smart approach (even in a metro area whose suburban bus system is, indeed, called SMART!). Even if on mainly private ROWs, (which the Woodward line probably won't be), 17 miles for radial LRT line is a bit much. Dallas and LA have them, but their lines are largely on private, high-speed ROWs, largely next to freight rail... Now, if the Woodward line jogged over to Grand Trunk freight/Amtrak line at 8 Mile/State fairgrounds, it would be considerably better. Still, restoring the commuter Line out to Pontiac would make more sense. ] Though you bring up some very valid concerns, clvlndr, I think that down the middle of Woodward is the right move. Though the dedicated ROW of the parralel GTW line would relieve interference from street traffic, it would bypass the active downtown areas of Ferndale and Birmingham and also miss the Detroit zoo by about a half mile. Though the route down Woodward would miss the busy downtown Royal Oak area, it wouldn't miss by much. I'm also afraid that if the line were to go down the GTW ROW it would be "out of sight and out of mind." Going down the middle of Woodward makes it hard to miss and keeps it front and center. That would encourage more use, in my opinion. If I am not mistaken, there is quite a bit of street running in Dallas and Denver's systems and they seem to do quite well. Don't get me wrong: I would love to see service along the GTW main north from Detroit. It should be more of an express service and should extend all the way to Flint (easily switching over to the lightly-used CSX line from Holly to the north). That's a topic for another day, I suppose. One can always dream.

Even better news from Michigan: The aforementioned bill was signed into law with HUGE amounts of bi-partisan support. I wish I could figure out why our Republicans work differently than your Republicans.

There is finally some good news to report up here, in Michigan, regarding the speed restrictions which have plagued Pontiac/Detroit-Chicago service since early June. Earlier this week, while at the dedication of Pontiac's new Transportation Center, state Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle announced that a $4.3 million maintenence agreement with Norfolk Southern (owner of the route between Detroit and Kalamazoo) would begin soon with improvements completed by mid-September. This is good news for time keeping on this line and is thought by some to be a condition of the purchase of the line from NS by MDOT, for which money has already been set aside. The purchase of the line by the state will then allow the state of Michigan to spend other stimulus dollars that have been set aside for structural and signalling improvements to the line. It is interesting to note that this work is being done under a Republican administration in Lansing.

The USS Michigan was converted to a Guided Missile sub, as well. The Michigan being an Ohio class, of course. I wonder if only the newest Ohios are still SSBNs?

One would have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by images taken from the moments when sailors return to their home port to see loved-ones for the first time in months. Interesting that the Cleveland is the type of ship that it is. In the '80s a whole class of attack subs were given the names of large American cities. Presumably, since the name USS Cleveland was already in use, it was not one of those named. It will be interesting to see if the name will be recycled.

What if some of the money from any proposed turnpike lease was put toward linking Northern Ohio cities with speedy, efficent, rail service to Pittsburgh and Chicago? Daytime alternatives to the Capitol and Lakeshore Ltds. It would give folks an alternative to taking the Turnpike at all!

Well written piece, Ken. Good use of statistics and quotes, as well. I especially liked the quote from the person at the Ford Motor Company. That should fit nicely up the butts of those who claim that people always long for the "freedom" of their automobiles and wouldn't dream of using other options if they were available.

This is the first time I have viewed the "Dayton Banana" post. Great work! It would appear, however, that if the Dayton area was intent upon making itself into a minature Detroit, it is well on its way. All I can think of is a hollow core with a rich, vibrant "crust" on the fringes. Good luck with that, SW Ohio. That sort of thing has worked out great in Detroit!

It would appear, at first blush, that these are a bunch of business interests intent on cashing in on the new paradigm that is being forged (albeit forcefully) in Mr. Mica's House Transportation Committee. I have no doubt that since the current leadership wants to privatize pax rail in this country, this group of sober-faced gentlemen would be all-too-happy to help their respective interests profit from any such privatization. I guess that the biggest difference between conservatives and liberals is that the former see government spending as "waste." The latter would rather see that money in their own pockets in the form of bonuses and dividends. After all, corporate America always know what is in the best interest of all of us! Just ask them!