(WXYZ) — The Detroit People Mover could soon be seeing some upgrades. The Detroit Transportation Corporation, the organization behind the rail service, is launching a year-long study to see what long-term and short-term improvements could be made.
Those improvements could include adding new stations, getting rid of some stations or actually expanding the route footprint. On Wednesday, I took a ride on the People Mover with GM Robert Cramer who said the possibilities are endless.
Take a ride with us in the Detroit People Mover in the video below
Every day, people like John Harrison grab their bags and step onto the People Mover.
"It saves me a lot of money and it saves me a lot of walking," Harrison told me.
The rail cars have been rounding the nearly three-mile loop making stops across Downtown Detroit since service began in 1987.
"It’s an asset. It’s especially good for conventions, like when we had the NFL Draft, someone could get off real close to the draft," Harold Tolliver said.
After counting its millionth rider this year, the Detroit Transportation Corporation said it's time for improvements. Harrison said he hopes it will eventually mean an expansion past Downtown Detroit.
"Farther towards the suburbs where we can get there, and get them jobs, and get more people down here from the suburbs. Make it easier for them to get downtown to our great city," Harrison said.
To determine what changes would be most helpful and feasible, the DTC is launching a year-long, $800,000 study, which will include input from neighbors, landowners and city departments.
"The study could result in a lot of different solutions. Some of them could be expanding the footprint in the track, maybe into some of the neighbors around the downtown area, but the study could also think of better ways to connect people into the system as well. It could be improvements to DDOT routes, the autonomous vehicle shuttle, maybe it’s something like that that could connect people in to the station," GM Robert Cramer said.
Cramer said those changes could be as small as renaming stations or as large as exploring a two-directional system.
"I don’t see how they can expand it. I don’t see how they can do it. So I would say just improve on the service that we presently have," Tolliver told us.
The DTC says the ultimate goal is to make the experience better as they look to attract even more riders next year.
"It’s been around for 37 years and downtown has kind of grown and changed into a different place, in some ways," Cramer said. "But we’ve been here the whole time and kind of rolling with those new opportunities for people to have a great experience."
On Thursday, the DTC will officially accept a proposal that decides which firm will conduct the study.
Depending on what comes out of the study, the DTC said smaller-scale improvements could begin before it's even concluded. Things that are more complicated, like a two-directional rail system or expanding the distance the route takes, would need additional funding and likely be a years-long effort.
