SEMTA Commuter Rail, also known as the Silver Streak, was a

commuter train Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are consi ...

operated by the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) and the

Grand Trunk Western Railroad The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding ...

between

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 61,606. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Pontiac is about northwest of Detroit. Founde ...

. It began in 1974 when SEMTA assumed control of the Grand Trunk's existing commuter trains over the route. SEMTA discontinued operations in 1983.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

began offering intercity service between Detroit and Pontiac in 1994 as part of its

Michigan Services ''Michigan Services'' are three Amtrak passenger rail routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with the Michigan cities of Grand Rapids, Port Huron, and Detroit, and stations en route. The group is a component of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. ...

History

Grand Trunk

Passenger rail service between Detroit and Pontiac dated back to 1843 with the completion of the

Detroit and Pontiac Railroad The Detroit and Pontiac Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan during the mid-nineteenth century. It was the sixth railroad to receive a charter from Michigan, then a territory, and the second, after the Erie & Kala ...

, the second

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

(after the

Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

) to operate trains in the state of Michigan. The

, a subsidiary of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

, began offering commuter service on August 1, 1931. In 1968 the Grand Trunk operated six daily commuter trains (three round-trips) between the two cities. Average daily ridership was 2,812. By 1971 the Grand Trunk estimated yearly losses at $241,626, leading it to contemplate increasing fares or canceling the trains altogether. Both options would require the approval of the

Michigan Public Service Commission The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) is a regulatory agency which regulates public utilities in the state of Michigan, including electric power, telecommunications, and natural gas services. The MPSC's headquarters are located in Lansing, ...

. The coming of

and end of most private-sector intercity passenger service was then three weeks away but commuter trains were considered separate entities and remained in private operation after May 1, 1971.

SEMTA

The

Michigan Legislature The Michigan Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article IV of the Michigan Constitution, ...

passed the Metropolitan Transportation Authorities Act of 1967, which included the creation of SouthEastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA). SEMTA was charged to take over the ownership and operations of the fractured regional transit systems in Wayne,

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, Macomb, Washtenaw, St. Clair, and Monroe counties, including the city of Detroit. On January 2, 1974, SEMTA began subsidizing one-third of the losses of the commuter trains This subsidy increased to two-thirds in 1977, with SEMTA formally acquiring the rolling stock and taking full responsibility for losses in 1978. In 1975 service consisted of three

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

trips between Pontiac and Detroit, supplemented by a single evening rush hour trip from Detroit to

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103. History The area comprising what is now the c ...

. The Birmingham train ended in spring 1976. Average train capacity in 1979 stood at 250 passengers. SEMTA operated a pair of special trains in 1982 for

Super Bowl XVI Super Bowl XVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

, running from the newly completed

Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center (also known as the GM Renaissance Center and nicknamed the RenCen) is a group of seven connected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Renaissance Center complex is on the Detroit International Riv ...

to Pontiac, near the

Pontiac Silverdome The Pontiac Silverdome (also known simply as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, ...

. One carried the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

production crew; the other was chartered by a "private tour group". In 1981 daily ridership stood at 3,000. SEMTA's April 1983 timetable featured a stylized

NYC Hudson A New York Central Hudson was a popular 4-6-4 " Hudson" type steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and the Lima Locomotive Works in three series from 1927 to 1938 for the New York Central Railroad. Named after the ...

locomotive on its cover and it continued to operate three weekday rush-hour round-trips, but all was not well. By the fall of 1983 SEMTA faced a $16 million budget shortfall and aging equipment. SEMTA estimated the cost of operating the commuter train at $1 million per year. Unable to secure funding for the train from local communities, SEMTA decided to discontinue the trains amid other cutbacks. The last train ran on October 17, 1983. SEMTA leased 22 passenger cars to the

Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State public benefit corporations, public authority of the U.S. state of New Yor ...

for $320,000 per year. The five

EMD GP9 The EMD GP9 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between 1954 and 1959. The GP9 succeeded the GP7 as the second model of EMD's General Purpose (GP) line, incorporating a new sixteen-cylind ...

diesel locomotives were stored and later sold to the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

. A year after discontinuance SEMTA estimated start-up costs at $1–2 million.

Expansion politics

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s SEMTA attempted to expand its commuter rail network as part of an integrated regional transit plan. These efforts failed because of funding problems and political disagreement. In 1974 the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) and SEMTA rolled out a transit plan for rapid transit, bus rapid transit, people movers, and improved commuter rail. It included improvements for existing services on the Grand Trunk route to Pontiac and the

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

route to Ann Arbor, but not the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

(C&O) route via

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

. The plan would cost $6.2 billion. SEMTA unveiled a smaller plan in 1977 for $1.2 billion in transit projects, to be partially funded by the federal government. This plan included two

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

lines, three

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

lines, the

Detroit People Mover The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a elevated automated people mover system in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The system operates in a one-way loop on a single track encircling downtown Detroit, using Intermediate Capacity Transit System lin ...

, and upgrades to existing bus routes. For commuter rail SEMTA allocated $42 million, both for the existing Pontiac route and to create service from Detroit to Ann Arbor and

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

, but not Plymouth. The system would total . In 1979 the

Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate ...

commissioned a $350,000 feasibility study for the revival of passenger service over the C&O between Detroit and

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...

, the state capital. In 1947 the C&O's famed '' Pere Marquettes'' covered the distance in an hour and a half. The study included commuter rail service Plymouth, a distance of . SEMTA, as in 1974, was non-committal, believing the C&O route "too congested" with freight traffic and preferring to establish service through Wayne County to Ann Arbor over the former Penn Central route, which was now owned by

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

. It was anticipated at that time that SEMTA would assume operation of the existing Ann Arbor commuter service, then operated by Amtrak, by 1984. In 1981 SEMTA formally proposed a Detroit–Ann Arbor commuter service, operating over the Conrail route. This route already saw three

intercity trains per day, plus the Amtrak-operated Detroit–Ann Arbor ''

Michigan Executive The ''Michigan Executive'' was a commuter train operated by Amtrak between Detroit, Michigan, and Jackson, Michigan. Amtrak took over the service from Penn Central in 1975 and discontinued it in 1984. History As Amtrak's mandate did not cover ...

'' commuter train, like SEMTA a holdover from private operation. SEMTA proposed Conrail would operate the service under contract, with a minimum of eight round-trips per day. The Detroit terminus would be a new station near

Joe Louis Arena Joe Louis Arena was an arena in Downtown Detroit. Completed in 1979 at a cost of US$57 million as a replacement for Olympia Stadium, it sat adjacent to TCF Center, Cobo Center on the bank of the Detroit River and was accessible by the Joe Lou ...

Amtrak revival

Pontiac Michigan Amtrak station (1983-2011)

Passenger rail service resumed over the Grand Trunk on May 5, 1994, when

extended the Chicago–Detroit trains ''

Twilight Limited The ''Twilight Limited'' was a named passenger train in the United States which initially operated between Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan. The New York Central Railroad introduced the train in 1926, and it continued until the formati ...

'' and ''

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is ...

'' to Pontiac. With this change service began at a new station in Detroit's

New Center New Center is a commercial and residential historic district located uptown in Detroit, Michigan, adjacent to Midtown, one mile (1.6 km) north of the Cultural Center, and approximately three miles (5 km) north of Downtown. The area is ...

, near the old commuter stop at

Milwaukee Junction Milwaukee Junction is an area in Detroit, Michigan, east of New Center. Located near the railroad junction of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's predecessors Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway and the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand T ...

. In Pontiac Amtrak used the

Pontiac Transportation Center The Pontiac Transportation Center is an intermodal terminal station located in Pontiac, Michigan that is served by Amtrak's Michigan Services ''Wolverine''. The transportation center is also served by Indian Trails intercity bus service and Subur ...

, originally constructed for the SEMTA commuter service but which had opened just six months prior to discontinuance.

Route

SEMTA operated a single line from Detroit to Pontiac, running parallel to

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

. In Detroit trains used a small station at St. Antoine and Franklin near site of

Brush Street Station Brush Street Station was a passenger train station on the eastside of downtown Detroit, Michigan, located at the foot of Brush Street at its intersection with Atwater Street and bordered by the Detroit River to the south. History The original sta ...

, which was demolished in 1973 to make way for the

(later SEMTA timetables simply indicated "Renaissance Center" as the Detroit terminus). Outbound stops included

, the Chrysler Center in Highland Park, Ferndale at 9 Mile Road,

Royal Oak The Royal Oak is the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. C ...

(at 11 Mile Road and at 12 Mile Road),

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern bo ...

(at Charing Cross Road and at Long Lake Road), and finally

Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...

. The total distance was .

Equipment

SEMTA owned a pool of 23 steam-heated passenger coaches; 12 of these were originally from the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

(PRR) and the other 11 from the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. Refit for commuter service each coach could seat 92. In May 1976 SEMTA acquired the old PRR '' Keystone'' trainset (the so-called "tubular train") from Amtrak for $80,000 but this equipment did not enter service. The Grand Trunk employed both

and

EMD GP18 The EMD GP18 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division between December 1959 and November 1963. Power was provided by an EMD 567D1 16-cylinder engine which generated . The GP18 replaced the GP9 in E ...

locomotives for motive power.