[LMich]

The title seems to paint a more grim picture than what the article actually investigates. Looks like things are moving forward, though and as usual, more slowly than anyone would like. Love the thorough update, though:

Obstacles, funding questions plague Ann Arbor-Detroit rail line, but progress is being made

Tom Perkins | Ann Arbor.com

May 4, 2011

Planners of a proposed Ann Arbor-to-Detroit rail line are slowing making progress, although the project still faces a list of obstacles and financial uncertainty.

That’s the message Carmine Palombo delivered to the Ypsilanti City Council during an update on the effort at council's regular Tuesday night meeting.

...

He said he hopes a demonstration train might be available later in the year to take riders to a football game in Ann Arbor or Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, for example. But officials had similar hopes last year and Palombo declined to offer any timelines on when demonstration trains or a regular routes might be running.

Chief among the issues is how commuter and passenger trains will share rail lines with the freight train companies that own them.

In some spots along the 38 miles of rail, sidetracks need to be built that would allow trains to pass one another, but the largest obstacle is an intersection of tracks in west Detroit between the Dearborn and downtown Detroit stations.

As the route runs east past Dearborn, it turns north at an intersection that sees heavy freight traffic. In order for a commuter or passenger train to head north there, the trains are required to do a turnaround that significantly slows the route.

MDOT is funding a $12 to $15 million project to add an extra track that would double the intersection’s capacity, alleviate congestion and allow for better flow.

Palombo said the project is funded by federal high speed rail grants, and he hopes it will completed by the end of 2011, though it could run into 2012.

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Three train cars are renovated, of which one is undergoing minor redesigns for safety issues. Full service would require three locomotives and nine cars, Palombo said, and funds to lease 24 cars are available.

Funding is still needed for an estimated $25 to $30 million in remaining “smaller” capital improvement projects, such as signs and sidetracks. But complicating the situation are discussions between MDOT and Norfolk-Southern about MODT purchasing the tracks between Dearborn and Kalamazoo. If that sale goes through, some of the planned capital improvement projects might be unnecessary, so officials don’t want to start spending unnecessarily.

Question marks also remain over the source of the required $8 million to $10 million in annual operating costs. That money and capital funds could come via $150 million in federal high speed rail grants, which the state must match with at least $37 million of its own money. Palombo said SEMCOG officials have met with Gov. Rick Snyder to discuss the grant, and he is confident the administration is committed to offering matching funds

“He isn’t just going to leave $150 million sitting there unused,” Palombo said.

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