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I know this is little older thread from last year (before Qline opened to public) but I don't see any place where people have been talking about their experience riding the Qline. I happened to be in DMC area last Friday for doctor visit and decided to explore downtown all over again. I took the Qline from Warren ave all the way down to Congress.
The waiting stations looked very nice. There was a monitor displaying lot of information including time until next train stops at this station. Mine said 7 min which gave me enough time to explore the station, try to figure out how to buy my ticket. Luckily rides are free until Jun 30th. So no need for ticket. In the train, I expected to see lot of students or empty since it has been over a month and initial excitement might have worn off. But to my surprise the train was full and there were lot of different types of people on board: from retires exploring in groups, to students, to hospital employees. I heard lot of "oh look, this is here.... oh I use to work here 40 years ago..etc. Lot of excitement in the train
most people got off at Camus Martius. It was around lunch time, I am guessing many people went there for food. I took the train back at 3pm and the train was just as full.
Funny, I wanted to use it to go from Campus Martius to mid-town for better lunch options. It is not going to be practical for that unless they find a way to dramatically shorten the time
It looked pretty full all weekend. It defiantly seemed like they needed more trains and signal priority and dedicated lanes. When I seen some light rail trains in LA they seemed to have their own lanes. I said this before, I think most of Woodward, Gratiot, Grand River, Jefferson, Michigan, and Fort are big enough to be to lose 2 lanes (1 on each side) for rail only, add that with priority traffic lights and feeder buses (DDOT and SMART) encouraging more people use it by being able to get people to the lines quickly and it would be a huge win for the region.
Funny, I wanted to use it to go from Campus Martius to mid-town for better lunch options. It is not going to be practical for that unless they find a way to dramatically shorten the time
Thanks, I must have missed the discussion. there is a lot of different discussion happening in that thread
It looked pretty full all weekend. It defiantly seemed like they needed more trains and signal priority and dedicated lanes. When I seen some light rail trains in LA they seemed to have their own lanes. I said this before, I think most of Woodward, Gratiot, Grand River, Jefferson, Michigan, and Fort are big enough to be to lose 2 lanes (1 on each side) for rail only, add that with priority traffic lights and feeder buses (DDOT and SMART) encouraging more people use it by being able to get people to the lines quickly and it would be a huge win for the region.
Then they could add safe secure parking in empty areas and ship people into the city without fighting traffic and parking. But not at the speed of the Q. Right now, it only takes me about ten to fifteen minutes from the city border to my parking space. No chance I am going to park someplace get out wait for the Q and inch my way downtown at an average of about 1.5 mph. When it gets more crowded downtown, that may change, but if the only option remains the Q tortoise, I will find another option (Kayak?).
LA also has high speed buses. They have their own dedicated roads in places. The buses are really nice, comfortable and do not stink like most city buses seem to. They work pretty well for the areas they serve.
The LA trains have some dedicated rail for them, but much of it is shared with Amtrack and freight trains. Still it woks pretty well. The trains do not go downtown, they take you to Union Station and the subway station is right below the train/bus station. The move fast between stops. The stops slow the average speed quite a bit, but it is still practical.
For me, the train/subway took 1 hour and 25 minutes to go 35 miles. That is not fast, but it was consistent. If I drove, it would take me anywhere form 40 minutes to 2.5 hours. Sometimes a lot longer (like 4 or more hours) if there was a big accident, murder, natural disaster, etc. Occasionally someone would use the train for suicide and you got delayed an hour or more, but that was extremely rare, the train was way more consistent. Driving, I had to allow 2.5 hours to have a reasonable certainty of being there on time. Plus, on the train, I could read, work, interment, talk, sleep, shop online, etc. Some people tried to do that wile sitting in LA traffic, but it did not work out too well.
San Diego and San Jose have great light rail systems that span the City. IN San Diego, revitalization came to life at each stop and spread out form there. There areas around the stops are very nice places to live near. They used to be awful.
I would love to see light rail feeding Detroit, but they would not get round to running it downriver in my lifetime. Still it would be nice to see other people get to use it.
Then they could add safe secure parking in empty areas and ship people into the city without fighting traffic and parking. But not at the speed of the Q. Right now, it only takes me about ten to fifteen minutes from the city border to my parking space. No chance I am going to park someplace get out wait for the Q and inch my way downtown at an average of about 1.5 mph. When it gets more crowded downtown, that may change, but if the only option remains the Q tortoise, I will find another option (Kayak?).
LA also has high speed buses. They have their own dedicated roads in places. The buses are really nice, comfortable and do not stink like most city buses seem to. They work pretty well for the areas they serve.
The LA trains have some dedicated rail for them, but much of it is shared with Amtrack and freight trains. Still it woks pretty well. The trains do not go downtown, they take you to Union Station and the subway station is right below the train/bus station. The move fast between stops. The stops slow the average speed quite a bit, but it is still practical.
For me, the train/subway took 1 hour and 25 minutes to go 35 miles. That is not fast, but it was consistent. If I drove, it would take me anywhere form 40 minutes to 2.5 hours. Sometimes a lot longer (like 4 or more hours) if there was a big accident, murder, natural disaster, etc. Occasionally someone would use the train for suicide and you got delayed an hour or more, but that was extremely rare, the train was way more consistent. Driving, I had to allow 2.5 hours to have a reasonable certainty of being there on time. Plus, on the train, I could read, work, interment, talk, sleep, shop online, etc. Some people tried to do that wile sitting in LA traffic, but it did not work out too well.
San Diego and San Jose have great light rail systems that span the City. IN San Diego, revitalization came to life at each stop and spread out form there. There areas around the stops are very nice places to live near. They used to be awful.
I would love to see light rail feeding Detroit, but they would not get round to running it downriver in my lifetime. Still it would be nice to see other people get to use it.
Aw come on CJ... your not that old are you? lol. I'm actually curious is people downriver would be on board for having rail transit in their neck of the woods.
Aw come on CJ... your not that old are you? lol. I'm actually curious is people downriver would be on board for having rail transit in their neck of the woods.
Fort Street is wide enough for a rail line running in the median.
Maybe a light rail line running down Fort Street from downtown, then turning onto Eureka and ending in Downtown Wyandotte.
The reason why all of the arterials (Grand River, Gratiot, Woodward, Michigan, East Jefferson, Fort) outside of the city limits are 8 lanes of traffic divided by a wide median was due to partial implementation of a 1920's plan to create superhighways with rapid transit running in the median.
In the city limits, the rail lines would run as subways underneath 9-lane wide avenues. It was determined that roads 9 lanes wide could accommodate a subway underneath. This is why some sections of the arterials within the city limits are 9-lanes wide (like Michigan Avenue thru Corktown. The southside of Michigan Ave does not have the old Victorian buildings as the north side, because the southside buildings were demo'ed to widen the road in the 1930s. See the difference here). Story of Michigan's widening - really sad.
Yes, the metro area, city and suburbs, were designed for rapid transit in mind, but that part of the plan was never implemented!
Last edited by usroute10; 06-02-2017 at 02:10 PM..
Aw come on CJ... your not that old are you? lol. I'm actually curious is people downriver would be on board for having rail transit in their neck of the woods.
Downriver is always last to get any attention. Listen to the traffic reports. While most of the accidents are up in Oakland and Macomb counties, you never hear anything about downriver unless it is something really dramatic. I. That is not because we never have accidents blocking the road, we just get ignored. (thank goodness Waze does not ignore us). hear the radio talking over and over about slightly slowed traffic on the 96 while I am sitting on 75 and it is completely closed. No mention
No, I will not be around in 50 years. Probably not in 40.
I believe people downriver would be very receptive to a light rail system. We tend to be heavily Detroit oriented, perhaps more so than the Oakland Co suburbs. It should really go down Jefferson, but Fort is an OK second choice as long as it veers to downtown wyandotte.
There was a rail system down Jefferson one. There was also heavy rail across Gross Ile, then the train cars were loaded onto a ferry and shipped over to Amherstburgh where it was connected to a different engine and continued on (to New York I think). They did nto ship the engines on the ferry from what I understand. Parts of the bridge are still there. I think there is part of the station out on Stoney Island, but is is hard to tell what was what there are so many old ruins out there. This system was why the free bridge exists.
It looked pretty full all weekend. It defiantly seemed like they needed more trains and signal priority and dedicated lanes. When I seen some light rail trains in LA they seemed to have their own lanes. I said this before, I think most of Woodward, Gratiot, Grand River, Jefferson, Michigan, and Fort are big enough to be to lose 2 lanes (1 on each side) for rail only, add that with priority traffic lights and feeder buses (DDOT and SMART) encouraging more people use it by being able to get people to the lines quickly and it would be a huge win for the region.
It will be full as long as it is free. But how many will pay to wait 20 minutes to catch the train and another 15 to get to campus Mauritius?
Downriver is always last to get any attention. Listen to the traffic reports. While most of the accidents are up in Oakland and Macomb counties, you never hear anything about downriver unless it is something really dramatic. I. That is not because we never have accidents blocking the road, we just get ignored. (thank goodness Waze does not ignore us). hear the radio talking over and over about slightly slowed traffic on the 96 while I am sitting on 75 and it is completely closed. No mention
No, I will not be around in 50 years. Probably not in 40.
I believe people downriver would be very receptive to a light rail system. We tend to be heavily Detroit oriented, perhaps more so than the Oakland Co suburbs. It should really go down Jefferson, but Fort is an OK second choice as long as it veers to downtown wyandotte.
There was a rail system down Jefferson one. There was also heavy rail across Gross Ile, then the train cars were loaded onto a ferry and shipped over to Amherstburgh where it was connected to a different engine and continued on (to New York I think). They did nto ship the engines on the ferry from what I understand. Parts of the bridge are still there. I think there is part of the station out on Stoney Island, but is is hard to tell what was what there are so many old ruins out there. This system was why the free bridge exists.
That's understandable. But being my overly optimistic self, I'm hoping it won't take 50 years to get regional rail all over the metro area (even Downriver) when other cities can do it in 10 or 20 years.
That's understandable. But being my overly optimistic self, I'm hoping it won't take 50 years to get regional rail all over the metro area (even Downriver) when other cities can do it in 10 or 20 years.
If you look at the San Diego system, planning began in 1966. However things did not begin in earnest until about 1977 and construction somewhat thereafter. They had an existing line to work with. It is hard to determine when it was "complete." Line expansion continued into 2005.
Comparatively, 40 to 50 years is not unreasonable for Detroit to reach Downriver. The Detroit system is not going to be bolstered by explosive growth the way San Diego was (unless the global warming experts are right and Michigan becomes the best place to be in North america in 20 - 50 years). How long did it take to build just tine Q line?
A major extension will require government funding and will drag on endlessly while they debate where the money will come from and what strings will come attached to it. Then of course, being governemnt they will attach impractical strings, like requiring it to be all electric even if electric drive is obsolete by the time they get it built.
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