Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
Yeah. The Renaissance Center and Detroit People Mover also made less sense when this was terminated. The DPM didn't start service until after the SEMTA rail service was discontinued, but it would have been very useful for circulating commuter rail passengers to other points of downtown.
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its interesting how this went in detroit vs cleveland. when did the detroit commuter line end service?
you wonder how it would have gone in both cities had the timing been different and these services built or kept intact.
the cleveland commuter train was a legacy service to the suburbs that fizzled away in 1977:
Description
On 6 January 1970, the Erie Lackawanna Railway discontinued its last long-distance passenger trains, leaving only its commuter services in northern New Jersey which are now operated by New Jersey Transit, and a single weekday round trip between Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio. The EL tried to discontinue this train, too, but was denied permission by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, based on protests by passengers. (When I was in high school in Warren, I had an acquaintance whose father used that train to commute to work in Cleveland, and was active in campaigns to keep it running.)
Most passengers lived in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs, out to Aurora, about a third of the total route mileage. Nevertheless, the train had to run to Youngstown so that the locomotive could be turned around, despite the fact that only a handful of passengers actually rode that far.
When Conrail took over the bankrupt EL in 1976, it closed the EL offices in Cleveland, near Union Terminal. Ridership dropped sharply. It seems that most of the passengers had been EL workers using their complementary railroad passes! The train was reduced from three coaches to one, and when Conrail proposed abandoning it, there was now little or no opposition. The last run was on 14 January 1977.
more:
http://www.jtbell.net/transit/Cleveland/EL/
cleveland also had people mover plans, i think earlier than detroit, but it was eventually shot down. today the refrain for rail transit circuit in downtown is the rather muted, but lingering rally cry to 'close the loop' meaning loop the rapid waterfront line back up around csu and to the prospect subway tunnels route back to tower city. i dk if that will ever happen, maybe someday, but it remains kind of a local rail transit dream:
Transit group wants RTA to study future of Waterfront Line, including possible loop through downtown Cleveland
Published: Dec. 02, 2020
By Courtney Astolfi, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio —All Aboard Ohio, a transit advocacy group, is calling on the already cash-strapped Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to study the future of the Waterfront Line, including the possibility of extending it into a loop around downtown Cleveland.
more:
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/...cleveland.html
and lastly, here is more about the scuttled cleveland people mover plan:
The Downtown People Mover
How Cleveland Returned a $41-Million Federal Grant
By Natalie Neale
more:
https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/798