An update on M1 light rail

I've been having a lot of fun already with this month's Risk theme, as I expected, but it's time to update something more positive than causes of potential DOOM and how to avert them.  Tonight, I bring you WXYZ's report on a public hearing on the M1 light rail line.


Instead of this being about conflicts between the light rail and cars, this is about a conflict between the trolley cars and bikes.  I actually find this to be a good sign.  Here's to being able to cheer on both sides and hoping that both of them win.

Another good sign is that this hearing is going on against the backdrop of Detroit being declared in Financial Emergency with Governor Snyder about to appoint an Emergency Manager.  This belies the concerns of two of my commenters, who both cited the possibility of a state takeover as the reason why the deal first fell through two years ago.

I'll let regular commenter Nebris start.

All that state take-over noise probably killed it.

Ed-M repeated and elaborated on the concern, even adding a possible solution.

I'm skeptical they can get a high-speed bus line up and running, either. And I predict that in the end they will scrap it, too.

And from what I just read at the Free Press website, I predict the City will be taken over by the State. Which probably means no buses, period.

What you all need there is some kind of metropolitan district commission.

As the above confluence of events demonstrates, it wasn't the prospect of a state takeover that killed the deal.  The state takeover is about to happen, and the light rail is going forward.  That means the buses will, too.  Instead, the issue was the lack of a regional transit authority, which passed during the Inflamed Duck session.  Once that happened, the funding returned.  It looks like Ed-M proposed the right solution.

Meta note: I finally got around to creating an M1 label for entries about this project.  I needed it.