High-speed rail a $100m conversation starter in early Michigan budget

LANSING, MI – Don’t plan your trip yet, but Michigan may be the tiniest step closer to realizing high-speed trains.

The state Senate’s initial budget proposal for the Michigan Department of Transportation, which a committee on Tuesday passed to the full legislature for negotiations, includes $100 million “to encourage high-speed rail development.”

The catch, however, is that this number, which represents more than 14% of MDOT’s proposed budget increase, is “just trying to start the conversation,” says the lawmaker who took point on crafting the Senate’s transportation proposal for fiscal year 2023-24.

“We want it to be a topic of conversation because I think that the region desperately needs it,” said Sen. Veronica Klinefelt, D-Eastpointe, a northeastern suburb of Detroit. “And I think any thriving metro area has mass transit and high-speed transit.”

Definitions vary of what qualifies as high-speed rail, but Amtrak’s Acela route between Boston and Washington, D.C., is generally considered America’s only high-speed service. Amtrak has five routes in lower Michigan, with end points in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Port Huron. ....................(more)

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/05/high-speed-rail-a-100m-conversation-starter-in-early-michigan-budget.html