Proponents of this project are biting off way more than they can chew; trying to stuff a huge parking structure (that will immediately undermine any mass-transit commuter rail), bus transfer station, bike parking, etc., onto river-adjacent parkland that has taken years to assemble, and is located well away from the urban center of the community.

By all means, let’s talk about cooperative ways to reduce congestion and improve the efficiency of transportation in Ann Arbor. Let’s talk about rail, too. But this enormous parking structure on parkland, which will only benefit UM, is simply a non-starter and a distraction.

Fuller Road, two decades ago, was a pleasant drive through natural areas, recreational parks, and North Campus, which was developed with an emphasis on maintaining the natural woodsy environment. Now the drive is just one parking lot after another, from UM Hospital to Glazier Way, where even more parking lots absorb the heat of the day. Our Huron River greenway, is now a parkway, as in parking lots, not parks. The least they could do is eliminate all those satellite surface lots in trade for building this car warehouse.

In fact, it’s forbidden by law to start up commuter rail operations. The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act limits Amtrak to funding the Northeast Corridor and trains that travel at least 750 miles. Amtrak’s mandate from day one has been to provide intercity services.

Amtrak can operate a commuter rail system, which it does in several cities across the country, and could do here. But that’s on a contract basis, with Amtrak essentially providing the engineers, conductors and maintenance staff.

I don’t know to what extent Amtrak supports commuter systems elsewhere, but a quick search found this example: “Acela Express offers hourly service downtown to downtown during peak morning and afternoon rush hours between New York, Washington, DC and intermediate cities“.

Reviewing the schedule, I find that a commute between Philadelphia and New York would be very doable, though expensive. There are at least 8 trains from Philadelphia to New York leaving before 8:00 and arriving before 9:00. Different trains cost more or less depending on amenities but the cheapest is $48 one way (leaves before 6 a.m.). These trains have some intermediate stops but no train stops at all of them, so from various locations in New Jersey one would have to select from a lesser number of choices.

The projected commuter train to Detroit has many stops, including Ypsilanti, the not yet built station in Westland (for Detroit Metro via shuttle), and Dearborn. “Milk train” stops like this slow down commuting quite a bit. The current train from Detroit to Ann Arbor leaves at 6:48 and arrives in Ann Arbor at 7:48, with one stop in Dearborn. The ticket cost is $11.00, a bargain. When I was commuting by train, the ticket cost consumed about 30% of my pretax income (commuting costs are not tax-deductible).

If Amtrak is not to operate a commuter rail in this area, that imposes a whole new level of operational requirements on any hypothetical commuter system. I wonder whether those have been spelled and costed out recently. There are so many complicating factors to operating a commuter service that will work, not just on an engineering basis, but on the basis of time and affordability that will bring adequate ridership.