Personally I think it would have been cool if they had built a new People Mover station into the Hudson's project, so that it integrated with the public amenities and shopping, and then shut down the Broadway and Cadillac Square stations.
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Originally Posted by seabee1526
I like that People Mover track as well. Is / Was there ever a plan to expand the system? Have a double track and have a train running the other direction? I'd rather see that upgraded than expanding Q
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It wasn't planned to be expanded, but it was intended to be fed by other transit routes (in that sense the Q-Line follows the original intention). The alignment was determined before the technology was chosen, and at that point they were expecting to choose some kind of rubber tire/monorail technology. Those require complicated switches (google "monorail switch"), which would be impractical with a line + circulator loop running at high frequencies. Ultimately though, they chose a technology which is typically used in metro systems, and the loop has plenty of natural expansion points. There are no technical or logistical barriers to expansion.
However, doubling the track would require demolishing and rebuilding the entire system. You'd have to replace the entire elevated guideway to make it big enough, you'd have to rebuild all of the stations to have platforms for each direction, and you'd have to choose a new alignment because nothing would fit in the current one. Luckily being one way isn't much of a problem. If your destination is in the wrong direction of travel, then it's probably only a short walk anyway.
As far as I know there's nothing happening with the People Mover in the near future, except that in the next few years they're going to buy new vehicles or refurbish the current ones.
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Originally Posted by animatedmartian
By comparison, the QLine was quite successful since it was something like 60 or 70 percent privately funded but of course the issue is still that it doesn't really connect any major areas and just shuttles people within Downtown and Midtown.
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The Q-Line was successful in that the city didn't pay for it and got something that's attractive for certain trips and certain people. Outside of that, it's slower than buses, less frequent than buses, less reliable than buses, and doesn't go as far as the buses. The operations and maintenance facility is too small for more vehicles. If you extended it down Woodward you could give it its own ROW in the median, but no one would want to drudge their way through the midtown section if they were going downtown, so people would still either bus or drive. And aside from all that, you could provide better transit service by just making bus lanes. If the Q-Line was built as a People Mover extension, it would actually be faster than driving, and would arrive every 4 minutes all day long.
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The chances of expanding the People Mover is pretty low since the technology it uses is so outdated and would probably cost more to upgrade and expand versus expanding the newly built QLine. At that point, it might be better to just build a whole new subway system with proper planning.
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There's over 300+ miles of it around the world, with 80+ more miles in planning. The majority of it has been built since the time Detroit's light rail project started planning. There's a list of systems and more explanation
here. Scroll down to the "Iron Wheel Type Linear Motor Car" section.
And here's a recent line in a north american context:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF_fe6Nqc2I
• Video Link
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Originally Posted by seabee1526
maybe someone out there wants a test platform for autonomous trains to go along with Ford's Corktown plans and would invest?
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The People Mover is already an autonomous train system.
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Originally Posted by DetroitSky
The People Mover is useless. I’d much rather see them expand the streetcar or add real BRT to major roads than expand the PM. It’s outdated and much more expensive to expand than the streetcar is.
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Even though all the buzz is around the Q-Line, the People Mover still has higher ridership. In fact, the Q-Line only matched the People Mover's typical ridership during the Q-Line's opening week, when it was free and everyone was checking it out.
It's true that an expansion would be very expensive. But it's only expensive because full grade separation is expensive, but grade separation is a requirement for good service anyway. Otherwise light rail just duplicates bus service, but more expensively. The value you get from an expansion would be high because the quality of service is so great. It comes every 4 minutes all day long. With more vehicles it can be a max of every 90 seconds which is the physical limit of the safe stopping distance of the trains.
I do agree that there's a debate between the value of building a few miles of high quality metro, vs a bunch of miles of BRT.