Port Huron’s pain becomes Detroit’s gain
Written by jrood
February 14, 2001 Coleman Young died a dozen years ago. If the former Detroit mayor were with us today, he surely would be delighted with news of a billion-dollar investment in Detroit's railroad infrastructure, the Port Huron Times Herald reports.
The Continental Rail
Gateway, a public-private partnership led by Canadian Pacific Railway and
Borealis Infrastructure Management of Toronto, plans to spend $400 million on a
rail tunnel linking Detroit and Windsor. The first trains would use it no later
than 2015.
Another $650 million is
proposed for an "intermodal freight terminal" — imagine a bustling
hub where freight arrives by rail, truck and ship — on 300 acres in southwest
Detroit.
If it’s built, the
Detroit terminal would be the largest public-private venture in Michigan
history. It also would be one of the most rare, since 40 percent of the money
is to come from the pooled resources of notoriously competitive railroads such
as CSX Transportation, CN, Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern.
The new tunnel is the key
to everything. Detroit’s existing 8,500-foot tunnel opened in 1909 and was
enlarged in 1994, but it is not tall enough to accommodate double-stacked
"high cube" shipping containers.
Port Huron is, far and
away, the busiest railroad crossing on the U.S.-Canadian border. This is true
only because the Paul M. Tellier Tunnel, which links the city with Sarnia, is
large enough for double stacks. The 6,129-foot tunnel opened in 1994 and was
dedicated on May 5, 1995. It replaced the 1891 St. Clair Tunnel, considered one
of the engineering marvels of the 19th century.
Young, as mayor of
Detroit, fiercely opposed the building of the Tellier Tunnel. He argued his
economically depressed community would lose jobs to Port Huron. He backed off
his opposition after state and railroad officials signed off on promises that
Detroit would lose no jobs as a result of the project.
Unfortunately, no one
made the same promises to Port Huron. CN shut down its Port Huron Township rail
car operation in October 1995, only months after the tunnel’s dedication. It
ended an era. In 1882, Grand Trunk Western began building locomotives and rail
cars at the Block I shops, which were partly in Port Huron and partly in the
old city of Fort Gratiot. The Great Storm of 1913 extensively damaged the Block
I shops and just two weeks after the gale a raging fire destroyed them. Hundreds
of jobs were saved when Grand Trunk rebuilt its shops west of 24th Street.
Trains still rumble
through Port Huron, often pausing long enough to block roads and delay traffic,
but the jobs they once brought with them are largely gone.
Somewhere, Coleman Young is
smiling.
