MARP Membership Meeting: The North-South Passenger Rail Project
On Saturday, June 7th, the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers (MARP) held a membership meeting at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City.
This is a republication of live coverage originally posted on Bluesky .
Where we are
Tom Fletcher, newly-appointed chair of MARP , presided over this special "Up North" membership meeting. Eric Schertzing, at-large member of MARP's Executive Committee, opened with an overview of Michigan's current rail and intercity bus network. In his words: "Trains need buses, buses need trains."
Fletcher introduces the speakers for this meeting: Eric Schertzing with an update on current rail and bus network conditions, followed by Carolyn Ulstad from the Groundwork Center with an update on the North-South Passenger Rail project.
Schertzing presents an MDOT map of Michigan's intercity bus network.
Where we're going
Carolyn Ulstad, Transportation Program Manager at the Groundwork Center, provided an update on the public engagement timeline for the North-South Passenger Rail project which will connect Detroit and Ann Arbor to Traverse City via Mount Pleasant and Cadillac.
The North-South Passenger Rail project is nearly a decade in the making.
You might know this project by its former name, A2TC (Ann Arbor to Traverse City). Groundwork moved away from that moniker to be more inclusive of the smaller towns along the proposed line which would benefit from a new rail connection.
At this meeting, Ulstad also highlighted that the latest plans have been expressly designed around Detroit as the origin point. The exact service pattern in Metro Detroit is still up in the air – Oakland County's Amtrak stations are not out of the question.
WSP was awarded the Phase II grant for creating a Service Development Plan, or SDP. The Cadillac/Wexford Transit Authority, or WexExpress , is administering it, while Groundwork is coordinating public engagement.
Stakeholder meetings with city officials and transit agency leaders kicked off earlier this spring. Cadillac and Petoskey are slated for later in June with public meetings to follow later this summer – Groundwork expects to provide an update in August or September.
We are roughly halfway through the consulting and design phase of the rail project. Groundwork expects the study to be finalized this winter with final public engagement slated for next spring.
I asked – public meetings will include virtual options too! Metro Detroiters need not make the schlep to Traverse City or points between to share their thoughts.
(I still will though. Meandering across the mitten is fun 🥨)
Ulstad emphasized that Groundwork is currently in "Round Zero" of the analysis process – in other words, modeling a base service plan which will be shaped by public input.
The North-South project is not currently part of Corridor ID and is not overseen by MDOT's Office of Rail. The current SDP has been modeled after the program's requirements for an easier transition should the project be selected in the future.
In contrast: The Coast-to-Coast study for rail service between Detroit and Grand Rapids is directly under MDOT's purview. Neither project has received a Corridor ID grant, but both have been designed in parallel with the program's requirements.
Market analysis has already highlighted high demand for weekend travel up north and back from downstate. College students are expected to drive ridership.
Any Michigander who's driven up I-75 on a Friday afternoon can attest to the crowds headed up north.
Whose train is it anyway?
Groundwork is planning this train, but will not be operating it as they are not a transit provider. Amtrak isn't entirely off the table as an option, but it's more likely we'll see a newly created agency or government body to oversee day-to-day service delivery.
Ulstad noted parallels to Amtrak's Downeaster , which has similar geographic coverage and population density. Amtrak operates it, but the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) oversees it.
The Downeaster has had a strong economic impact in each community it serves. (It also has specialized branding, all the way down to a bespoke cafe car menu with local favorites!)
The Corridor ID program is expected to reopen this fall for grant applications. The North-South project will be submitted for reconsideration.
The Corridor ID process is broken into three steps: Scoping, Service Development, and Preliminary Engineering / NEPA (environmental impact assessments). The scoping phase requires no local match dollars and comes with no obligation to progress further in the Corridor ID program.
Next Meeting
MARP leadership announced that the next meeting would be held "only 250 miles away" at the Royal Oak Public Library on Saturday, September 13th at 3:00pm.
MARP is a membership-based 501(c)(3) advocacy association with over 200 members in good standing. Past meeting minutes are published online .