A group of about 50 people attended a meeting in East Lansing last night to discuss their vision for the future of passenger rail in Michigan.  This meeting was the second in a series of forums being sponsored by the MI Association of Railroad Passengers and the Michigan Environmental Council.  Information on future forums scheduled around the state for the remainder of the summer and through the fall can be found at http://www.michiganbyrail.org/.  Next week, a forum is scheduled in Battle Creek (7/15), with a stop in Traverse City scheduled for the following week (7/22).

The purpose of these forums is to build momentum and provide some advance feedback for a series of public hearings expected later this year being organized by the MI Department of Transportation.  The department will be holding these later hearings as part of the process to develop a statewide rail plan as required by the federal Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008.

The East Lansing forum was co-hosted by State Representative Mark Meadows (D-East Lansing) and East Lansing City Councilmember Nathan Triplett.  Forum attendees participated in discussions about the status of rail infrastructure in Michigan, discussed local, state and federal rail projects and initiatives and even had a chance to create their own vision for where rail travel should exist in Michigan.  Nearly universally, attendees felt that rail access from Grand Rapids to Detroit was critical, along with some sort of North-South axis, possibly even extending to the Upper Peninsula and connecting population and tourism centers.  Connections based upon economic development were also at the forefront, with input concerning rail access to Metro Airport in Detroit and connections with Chicago, Canada and Toledo all being mentioned.

It was a great event and should help continue to drive the discussion about the importance of a statewide vision and committment to investment in rail travel in Michigan.  If you have a chance to attend one of the upcoming forums, I would encourage you to do so and show your support for passenger rail in Michigan.

Chris Hackbarth is the transportation policy advisor for the Michigan Municipal League.  Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.

The Capital is hopping this spring with transportation and transit issues being brought up on almost a weekly basis.  Just to bring everyone into the loop, last week, the House Transportation committee held a hearing in Ann Arbor to discuss the impact of MDOT’s proposed road project delays.  The committee then heard from a group of municipal officials about the importance of increased funding for the transportation system, as a whole, in renewing Michigan’s communities.  Mayor Paul Schreiber of Ypsilanti talked specifically about the importance of transit in his city and the choices that many communities are facing as they struggle with budget deficits and try to balance budgets, while still funding priorities that are essential for their residents.  The message delivered to the legislators on the committee was unanimous, that they need to act quickly to increase funding for transportation.

Next week, two major events are scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 4th…

First, the Michigan Transportation Team, a coalition of local and state road and transit agencies and business groups, is planning a Transportation Funding Rally at the Capital, starting at 10:30 am in the Capitol Rotunda.  Everyone interested in supporting increased funding for transit should try and attend and let the legislature know how important it is that they act quickly to increase funding for transportation in Michigan.  For more details on the event, visit www.mml.org or www.DriveMI.org.

Second, the House Intergovernmental & Regional Affairs and the Senate Commerce committees are planning a joint hearing at 3 pm on May 4th to begin debate on 12 bills that make up the TRAIN package (Transit Revitalization and Investment Act).  These bills focus on expanding a number of existing economic development tools available to communities to include transit-oriented development projects as projects eligible to be considered by those mechanisms.  These bills include changes to things like downtown development authorities, tax increment financing, commercial redevelopment, brownfield, and corridor improvement acts.  The committees will begin consideration of House Bills 5171, 5211, 5212, 5979, 5988, and 5989 and Senate Bills 1233-1238 at 3 pm in room 519 of the House Office Building, in downtown Lansing.

Look for these topics, along with the Regional Transit Authority legislation looking to better coordinate SMART and DDOT transit services in Southeast Michigan, Complete Streets legislation aimed at including transit, bicyclists and pedestrians in the road construction planning process, new federal high-speed rail grant funding, and the state transportation budget, to all be hotly debated in the coming weeks. 

Chris Hackbarth is the transportation policy advisor for the Michigan Municipal League.  Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.

Attended an open house last night put on by the Michigan/Grand River Avenue Transportation Study group in Meridian Township.  CATA and the affected communities are working together to map out a vision for transit along this important corridor…stretching from the Capitol Building out to the Meridian Mall.  The study group has been look at the various transit systems operating around the country (buses, bus rapid transit, light rail, streetcars, etc) and researching each one to see which type of system and what kind of improvements would be most appropriate to make this corridor a true economic engine for the region.  The study group has been working to educate the public on the various options through the website www.migrtrans.org.  On this site, visitors can answer a survey about their preferences for improvements to the corridor and can actually map out how their preferred system would look, from choosing the kind of transit system, the number of road lanes, bike path and sidewalk locations.  Just a great tool!  Kudos to the study group for their efforts to bring about this vision and their work to reach out and educate the public!

Chris Hackbarth works for the Michigan Municipal League, specializing in transportation policy issues. You can contact him at 517-908-0303 or by e-mail.

Big things are happening in Washington, DC and Lansing right now regarding transit and funding.  US Transportation Secretary LaHood has begun to implement the Obama Adminstration’s vision for mass transit funding by proposing new guidelines for funding major transit projects based upon livability issues like economic development opportunities and environmental and community benefits that a project will provide.  In Lansing, legislators have introduced bills to create a new Regional Transit Authority, responding to Secretary LaHood’s challenge to SE Michigan to develop a more coherent regional system as a precursor to competing for federal mass transit funding.  This new legislation is expected to receive quite a bit of attention in the coming weeks, as swift committee action is anticipated.  To top it all off, a bi-partisan group of legislators, is expected to introduce a package of bills in early February that will greatly expand the ability of local communities to use a number of existing economic development tools to help finance Transit-Oriented Development projects.  Developing buildings and other facilities to help promote bus and rail transit systems.  Stay tuned for an exciting 2010!

Chris Hackbarth works for the Michigan Municipal League, specializing in Transportation issues. You can contact him at 517-908-0303 or by e-mail.

Hi, I’m Chris…I handle transportation policy for the Municipal League and will be working with the Get Michigan Moving Campaign.  I had the opportunity this past week to travel the Amtrak Blue Water line from East Lansing to Chicago with a group of state legislators, staff and MDOT officials to learn about Amtrak’s presence in Michigan and the Midwest.  We spent the ride down hearing presentations from Amtrak and MDOT staff about hi-speed rail development in Michigan and future plans for rail expansion in the state.  Michigan has $800 million in ARRA hi-speed rail project applications awaiting approval from Washington and we heard detailed explanations of each project and learned about the technical aspects of bringing hi-speed train travel into Michigan.  Did you know that Michigan has the only stretch of track in the Midwest capable of hi-speed passenger travel?  The corridor from Kalamazoo, MI to Porter, IN was recently upgraded to allow travel at speeds of about 100 MPH!  It was an exciting day and I am eager to hear how Michigan fares when the feds announce the grant winners early next year.

Sobering news about how much time metro detroiters spend in traffic and how much its costing them. A new report from  The Texas Transportation Institute’s annual Urban Mobility Report says peak-time travelers in the Detroit area lose an average of 52 hours a year and waste 34 gallons of fuel because of traffic congestion and transit delays.  Isn’t it time state lawmakers passed comprehensive legislation raising the proper revenues to improve our roads, bridges and transit systems.  Tell them to just do it!

Kudos to MDOT Director Kirk Stuedle for his letter in the Detroit News reminding folks of the importance of high-speed rail to Michigan’s future and the benefits such a system brings.  Read how Michigan is positionining itself, in collaboration with other midwestern states, to receive Recovery Funds for such a project.

Here’s an interesting article from CNN Money on-line about the “cost” of high speed rail.  With most anything, cost can be defined in different ways.  Far too often it is defined in the most stark terms of money, without a real exploration of the cost to society if the policy is implemented or not.  That is why you have to go to the very last few sentences of this article to understand the real cost of not putting in place high speed rail and appropriate public transit in our communities.  I’ll be honest and say it here.., public transit is not a money-maker, but that is not why it has been implemented successfully in ciites across the world.  As noted by University of Pennsylvania Transportation Professor Vukan Vuchic, it has been implemented as a public service to improve quality of life.  The real bottom line according to Vuchic is that “Cities that offer you decent choices in high-speed rail are better than those who only offer you highway”.

Kalamazoo Train Depot

Earlier today, the Senate Appropriations committee took up SB 254(S-2).  This bill is the FY 2009-2010 transportation budget for the state of Michigan.  This budget provides $3.2 billion for all state and local transportation/transit programs throughout the state. It is main source of funding the 20,914 miles of local roads and bridges, and the 78 transit agencies that operate in every county in Michigan.

The Senate Appropriations committee has used the budget to fill gaps in the state’s general fund budget by reduce funding for our local operations. The budget will provide $16.26 million less for local roads and bridges. The budget will provide $4.28 million less for local bus operating support. The budget will provide $2 million less for the state funded AMTRAK routes (the Port Huron to Chicago line; and the Grand Rapids to Chicago line).

So what does this mean for us? It means that our local roads and bridges will continue to be underfunded. It means that our local transit operators will continue to suffer from a “death by a million cuts”. But most drastically, it means that one or both of the AMTRAK lines will cease to operate.

In these times of dwindling transportation revenues, where our communities will start facing deficits in transportation funding beginning in 2012, we can not afford for our Legislators to pile more troubles on top of all of that. See the full Issue Advisory on the current situation by clicking here.

Please visit our Action Center to call your Legislators and ask them to ACT NOW and restore these cuts!!! Ask them to ACT NOW and support the Transportation Funding Task Force (TF2) funding legislation.

I’ve returned from the 2009 American Public Works Association (Michigan Chapter) annual meeting in Boyne, MI. The APWA is the association of public works directors and employees throughout the state. These are the folks who manage municipal infrastructure (water, sewer, and roads). Each year, I give a Legislative Update to the members of the APWA and try to provide some perspective on what is going on in the State Legislature. This year, my task was to educate them on the Transportation Funding Task Force (TF2) funding legislation that is coming soon.

Part of my presentation included sharing with them a spreadsheet from MDOT that shows what each Michigan city and village can expect to receive in new transportation money if the TF2 bills are enacted (available here: TF2 MTF Forecast Plan City Village 5-11-09.pdf (41.95 kb)). It was good to see them get excited about the possibilities of a legislature finally supporting the efforts to get good transportation in Michigan.

I had to remind them that they have the power to get this done, just like you do. I’ve been told many times by legislators “Yeah Dave, I get it. Transportation needs more money. But I’m only hearing it from you, not from my folks at home.” We need you to ACT NOW!

Here’s a sample resolution that you can have your city councils adopt (available here:5-18-09 A Resolution Requesting Enactment of the Transportation Funding Task Force Legislation.pdf (32.47 kb)). Here’s a link to our action center so that you can send emails or make calls. Let us know how you’re doing with these calls. Tell your friends and families to call. We need the legislature to ACT NOW on transportation funding.