West Detroit Connection operational for Wolverines...

[neroden]

For the number of miles the route would run in Ohio, cooperation from Ohio is totally unnecessary. Michigan and the City of Toledo could pay for the whole thing.

 

[MikefromCrete]

For the number of miles the route would run in Ohio, cooperation from Ohio is totally unnecessary. Michigan and the City of Toledo could pay for the whole thing.

I doubt if the City of Toledo would be interested in subsidizing an inter-city train service. It would certainly be a tough sell for local taxpayers. I mean it's not like a local transit service. A mayor proposing that kind of expenditure would probably be looking for a new job after the next election.

 

[neroden]

Absolute nonsense, Mike -- you clearly haven't looked into this *at all*. Cities have put money into train stations and track improvements all over the country. I'm sure Toledo would consider putting money into capital improvements too.

The operational subsidy (which should be an insignificantly different from the subsidy paid for another Wolverine) would probably be paid entirely by Michigan. Just like Michigan pays for the Wolverine, and Indiana and Illinois pay nothing. Just like Maine and New Hampshire pay for the Downeaster and New Hampshire pays nothing. The benefit of the connection to Toledo mainly arises for Michigan since it allows people from Michigan to go east and people from the east to get to Michigan.

Really, Mike, look at how many miles the route spends inside Ohio. About 9.5 miles, *all within the city limits of Toledo*. If the operational subsidy were allocated proportionally to mileage, Ohio would be allocated pretty much none of it; at absolute most $375,000/year (based on current Wolverine subsidy levels which are expected to go down as 110 mph operation is phased in); Toledo's annual budget is $252,120,000, for perspective, so that's about 0.14%. More likely, Michigan wouldn't want to generate unnecesssary paperwork over such small numbers and would just fund the operating subsidy themselves.

 

[walker46]

. . . The operational subsidy (which should be an insignificantly different from the subsidy paid for another Wolverine) would probably be paid entirely by Michigan. Just like Michigan pays for the Wolverine, and Indiana and Illinois pay nothing. Just like Maine and New Hampshire pay for the Downeaster and New Hampshire pays nothing. The benefit of the connection to Toledo mainly arises for Michigan since it allows people from Michigan to go east and people from the east to get to Michigan.

You are absolutely right that Michigan pays the entire bill for all the trains that go to Chicago from Michigan including also the Pere Marquette and the Blue Water. This has always annoyed me in that Chicago benefits from these trains as much as Michigan and maybe more so. In a perfect world all interstate trains would be subsidized by the feds rather than the states. Of course that's not going to happen.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Meanwhile, regarding South of the Lake, no one will be much surprised by this:

The Program Team is in the process of completing the combined Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) for approval by the FRA. . . . included will be the Program’s selected route and service alternative for the corridor. The Final EIS/ROD is targeted for completion by the summer of 2016. The Service Development Plan is also underway and will be completed by summer of 2016.

http://greatlakesrail.org/

Where it now reads "by the summer of 2016", it used to say, "in the first quarter of 2016." Before that it read, "by the end of the year [2015]." And I keep thinking it used to promise stuff "by the end of summer" [2015] Well, at least they keep the site updated.