At ceremonies Jan. 18 in Detroit, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced that the M-1 Rail project can proceed immediately using a $25 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Program grant previously awarded for public transit in the city. The planned 3.3-mile streetcar line is designed to revitalize Detroit’s historic Woodward Avenue corridor.

M-1 Rail—a nonprofit consortium of local private businesses, foundations, and public and private institutions—already has committed more than $100 million toward construction and operation of the $137 million streetcar project. The remaining funds will come from state and local sources. The consortium will construct and initially operate the Woodward Avenue streetcar line. Ultimately, the line is expected to include 11 stations, with connections to Campus Martius, Comerica Park (home of the Detroit Tigers), the Detroit Medical Center area, and Wayne State University. The city of Detroit, Michigan DOT, and Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments will also be involved in moving the project through development and construction.

LaHood also announced that Detroit will receive an additional $6.5 million in FTA planning funds, available from prior fiscal years, to help develop a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network to expand transit options connecting downtown Detroit with its suburbs and key destinations in the region.

The planned BRT network would connect downtown Detroit with Macomb County along the region’s busiest transit corridor; expand east-west transit service between Macomb and Oakland counties; and extend transit service between downtown, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and Washtenaw County.