Trams return to the Motor City

Written by Keith Barrow, International Railway Journal
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Trams carried passengers along Woodward Avenue in Detroit for the first time in 61 years on May 12 with the inauguration of the 3.29-mile Q Line from Larned Street to West Grand Boulevard.

 

The $140-million project is claimed to be the first public-private partnership deal to be funded by private businesses and philanthropic organizations, in partnership with local, state and federal governments.

Supporters of the project include Bank of America, Detroit Downtown Development Authority, Detroit Medical Center, Ford Foundation, Ford Motor Company Fund, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, JPMorgan Chase, Michigan Department of Transportation, Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the United States Department of Transportation.

The project was also supported by the federal government through a $25-million grant from the Transport Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program.

In 2007, the project’s backers formed M-1 Rail, a non-profit organization, to lead the design, construction and operation of the 20-station line. Stacy & Witbeck was subsequently awarded the contract to build the line and major construction began in July 2014.

Services are operated by a fleet of six bidirectional Liberty LRVs supplied by Brookville Equipment Corporation.

The 20.3-mile-long three-section bidirectional vehicles will operate without catenary on 60 percent of the line, drawing power from an onboard energy storage system which utilizes 750V lithium-ion batteries. The 70 percent low-floor vehicles will also operate in catenary-free mode around the line’s depot.

Each vehicle accommodates up to 125 passengers, 32 of them seated.

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