Ann Arbor–Detroit Regional Rail (also known as MiTrain and formerly known as SEMCOG Commuter RailSEMCOG stands for Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, and is a collection of town, township, county, and city governments) is a proposed

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

service along the

Michigan Line The Michigan Line, sometimes known as the Chicago–Detroit Line, is a higher-speed rail corridor that runs between Porter, Indiana and Dearborn, Michigan. It carries Amtrak's ''Blue Water (train), Blue Water'' and ''Wolverine (Amtrak train), W ...

between the cities of

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

and

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, a total length of . The project would connect with a proposed Detroit bus rapid transit service and the QLine

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

History

Detroit previously had commuter rail service. Until 1983, SEMTA operated Grand Trunk Western Railroad's former service between downtown Detroit, and Pontiac, Michigan. Amtrak continued

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

Detroit–Ann Arbor commuter service as the '' Michigan Executive'' until 1984. In May 2009 SEMCOG commissioned a $200,000 study to determine whether commuter trains could operate along the same corridor as

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 intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

intercity passenger trains and freight trains. limited service for special events in Detroit was scheduled to begin in early 2013, while regular commuter service was scheduled for 2014, after further track upgrades are completed. However, no operating funds had been identified and service was at least two years out. From November 12 to 14, 2012, testing of the railcar fleet by an Amtrak

GE Dash 8-32BWH The GE Dash 8-32BWH, also known as the P32-8BWH, B32-8WH, or P32-8, is a diesel-electric locomotive used by Amtrak in passenger train service, based on the GE Dash 8 Series of freight train locomotives. Built in 1991, they were the first locomot ...

locomotive took place between Pontiac and Jackson; while service will only initially operate between Ann Arbor and Detroit, testing the fleet on additional trackage eases the process required for future expansion to Jackson and Pontiac. The locomotives have not yet been tested. The plan was folded into the

RTA RTA may refer to: Media * Radio and Television Arts, program at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada * Radio Television Afghanistan ** RTA TV, an Afghan channel * Radiodiffusion Télévision Algérienne * Real time attack, a game speedrun Sci ...

's master plan in May 2016. The service was estimated to cost $11-$19 million to operate annually, and $130 million in capital costs to start. At that time, it was thought that service could begin in 2022. However as of March 2025, there have not been any updates on the project, and it is unknown if it was canceled or is still happening.

Service

The service is proposed to operate eight round-trips during each day: three during morning and afternoon

rush-hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian 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 e ...

s, one during the midday, and one in the evening. An end-to-end ride is estimated to take 45 minutes, and there would be stops at

, Ypsilanti, Wayne, Dearborn and the New Center neighborhood in Detroit. Of these stops, four are existing or proposed

stations, and one (Wayne) would be a new station used exclusively for the regional rail service.

Rolling stock

SEMCOG Commuter Rail's rolling stock are all ex-

Metra Metra is the primary commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 243 train station, stati ...

Budd bi-level gallery-type cars and ex-

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...

EMD F59PH The EMD F59PH is a four-axle AAR wheel arrangement#B-B, B-B Diesel-electric transmission, diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Diesel, Electro-Motive Division from 1988 to 1994. A variant, the F59PHI, was produced f ...

units currently owned by RB Railway Leasing.Ann Arbor-Downtown Detroit Transit Study: Detailed Screening of Alternatives
/ref> SEMCOG has painted its rolling stock. Like Metra cab cars, SEMCOG's cab cars have red and white warning stripes at the front. They have plates that say "MiTrain" on the sides. As of 2020, the gallery cars were sold off to WeGo Star and Steam Railroading Institute, while F59PH locomotives remain with RB Railway Leasing (while some were sold to LTEX or FIT Mexico).

Notes

References

External links

RTA Projects PageSEMCOG Ann Arbor - Detroit Regional Rail ProjectOne of the leased EMD F59PHs in late 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ann Arbor-Detroit Regional Rail Passenger rail transportation in Michigan Commuter rail in the United States Proposed railway lines in the United States Transportation in Detroit Transportation in Ann Arbor, Michigan