ANN ARBOR, MI - Even before considering possible ridership increases, Ann Arbor's Amtrak station already is inadequate and doesn't meet today's passenger needs, argues Eli Cooper, the city's transportation program manager.
"I would invite council members, members of the community, to come out and experience the existing Ann Arbor Amtrak station during periods of heavy use," Cooper told the City Council on Tuesday night, Jan. 17.
Eli Cooper, Ann Arbor transportation program manager. Cooper's remarks came just before the council voted 8-3 to approve a contract for preliminary design and engineering for a new station.
Responding to a question about how much the need for a new station hinges on the realization of ambitious future ridership projections showing more than 12 times the amount of people using Ann Arbor's Amtrak station, Cooper seemed to acknowledge the projections might be overly optimistic.
"The anticipated commuter service and the forecast and projection for future growth in both rail ridership and use at this station are, if you will, perhaps not well founded, but the need for the initial investment is in order to remedy the defects of the current station," Cooper told council members.
"About a week or so ago, I happened to pass the parking lot. It was full. As a matter of fact, it was overfull with cars parked haphazardly on lawn areas and the like, so the purpose and need for the project was well established several years ago based on the conditions existent at the existing station."
MDOT official says Ann Arbor's Amtrak station is what some call an 'Amshack'
There were 122,534 boardings and deboardings at the Amtrak station on Depot Street in 2016, down 18 percent from three years earlier.
Future projections the city has been citing suggest that could climb to 969,000 by 2035, assuming the number of Amtrak daily roundtrips along the Detroit-Chicago line increases from three to 10, with potentially 516,000 additional boardings/deboardings in Ann Arbor from regional commuter rail.
The long-term Amtrak ridership projections are derived from a June 2014 report prepared for the Michigan Department of Transportation by Transportation Economics & Management Systems Inc. City officials maintain the Federal Rail Administration has required the city to use that report's ridership forecasts for the planning for the station in Ann Arbor.
Officials have cited various reasons for the recent ridership declines, including low gas prices that have more people hopping in their cars.
There also were disruptions to Amtrak schedules through much of 2016 that are believed to have impacted ridership as improvements to state-owned railroad infrastructure between Battle Creek and Jackson were completed.
Michigan Department of Transportation contractors, including Amtrak, completed construction in Calhoun and Jackson counties on 41 miles of track last year.
That included replacing 26,000 railroad ties, repairing or installing 15 track switches, realigning or modifying 29 railroad curves, repairing 23 railroad grade crossings and improving road profiles at crossings.
Amtrak also continued to improve the signal system controlling rail traffic on MDOT's rail segment east of Kalamazoo.
Amtrak announced modified service schedules last April, saying work would continue through September. The agency announced the completion of the year's construction activities in November, saying full service was restored.
Amtrak says the work done last year continues the improvement of state-owned railroad infrastructure as part of Michigan's Accelerated Rail Program, with the result being improved reliability and a smoother ride for customers, along with an expansion of the Midwest's first 110-mph Amtrak service.
It's those high-speed rail improvements along the Detroit-Chicago line, combined with the possibility of commuter rail between Ann Arbor and Detroit eventually at some point in the future, and the possibility of rising gas prices and increasing traffic congestion forcing more people to look at transit options, that have Ann Arbor officials betting on a future in which rail service grows.
But according to Cooper, whether or not that growth is realized, Ann Arbor needs an improved train station.
Council Members Jack Eaton, Sumi Kailasapathy and Jane Lumm voted against moving forward into the next phase of design.
Ann Arbor council votes 8-3 to move ahead with train station design
"This is a project that's been consistently behind schedule and over budget," Lumm argued. "I'm not sure what makes us think that won't continue. A good portion of the local dollars already invested are gone, and I fear, wasted. And we sit here tonight being asked to commit another $500,000 of taxpayer money."
Lumm noted the environmental review phase hasn't been completed yet, and a site for a new station hasn't been chosen yet.
"But because of the delays along the way, the clock is running out on the grant funding, so we're now being asked to scramble and dive in to the next phase immediately," she said. "That's just not how we should be doing things."
The existing Amtrak station next to the Broadway Street bridges over Depot Street and the railroad first opened in early 1983.
Possible locations for a new station include Depot Street, where the existing station is located, and in Fuller Park, on a parking lot in front of the University of Michigan Hospital. The city also has looked at the possibility of returning the historic Michigan Central Railroad Depot on Depot Street, which has been the home of the Gandy Dancer restaurant since the 1970s, to use as a train station.
DTE Energy wants to partner with the city on a riverfront redevelopment that would have a new train station integrate with a new mixed-use development on a 14-acre, DTE-owned property across the tracks from the existing station on Depot Street. Some see the potential synergy there, in a location that's walkable to downtown, as preferable, though others like the idea of a station on Fuller Road in front of University of Michigan Hospital, which could attract U-M commuters.
Riverfront redevelopment in Ann Arbor could incorporate new train station
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