A project promoted by environmental activists to create a railway from Ann Arbor to Traverse City has recently gained $2.3 million in state and federal funds for a phase II feasibility study. An earlier study, conducted in 2018 for the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, launched the proposal. The environmental group says public transportation systems are needed to curb climate change.
The 2018 study, conducted by Transportation Economics Systems, included overly optimistic numbers for passenger traffic, based on Amtrak and other passenger railway data.
Sen. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, chair of the Michigan Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, announced on July 1 that the new state budget allocated $1 million to fund a new study. The project will also get $1.3 million in federal funds, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which announced grants to 166 projects across the nation.
Questions remain about the accuracy of the 2018 study, with its use of Amtrak data a key question mark. Amtrak’s rail between Detroit, population 672,351, and Chicago, population 2,690,000, carried 501,124 passengers in 2019, Amtrak said in a recent document.
Only five of Amtrak’s 48 lines in the U.S….
