What is this about?
It's about Ann Arbor's Amtrak station. It's the busiest in Michigan, but one of the smaller, less attractive ones. It's not ADA compliant. The plan is to increase the number of Amtrak trains from six daily to twenty daily. And there are plans to begin commuter service as soon as possible, initially between Ann Arbor and Detroit but with the possibility of extending further in each direction.
Just about everybody agrees we need a new one. But...
Where should it be?
Two locations are under consideration: either the current location on Depot Street; or in front of the University of Michigan Medical Center on Fuller Road.
From a transportation perspective, the Depot Street location is awkward. It's too far for most people to walk from the large work centers of Ann Arbor. Depot Street is two lanes wide without any reasonable possibility of being widened, and very congested during peak morning and evening hours. When commuter service is offered, it will be necessary to run multiple buses from the station to the centers of employment over Depot and other congested streets.
The Medical Center location offers multiple advantages. The first and foremost is that the Medical Center is the largest concentration of employment in Washtenaw County, with over 20,000 employees - and the fastest growing. Staff, volunteers, visitors, and outpatients could easily walk (or roll in wheelchairs) between station and medical campus.
Fuller Road offers good connections on four-plus lanes to central campus, downtown Ann Arbor, north campus, and the North Campus Research Center. It is wide enough for transit and inter-city buses to negotiate easily, with dedicated left-turn lanes to permit turns without blocking traffic. It has been estimated that Fuller Road already carries Michigan's heaviest transit traffic due to the hundreds of big blue buses carying university students between campuses.
And because of these buses - and the cost of running them - the City of Ann Arbor and the University are engaged in planning for a high-capacity transit line, to connect northeast Ann Arbor, Research Center, north campus, medical campus, central campus, and downtown Ann Arbor. In order to link these important centers, it must pass by the Medical Center next to the railroad tracks...but will not pass anywhere near the current Depot Street station.
Using this "Connector", commuters and long-distance travelers alike will be able to get to the most popular destinations in Ann Arbor with zero or one transfer - to an attractive transit vehicle - most likely, a light-rail train.
So what's all the fuss about?
Many years ago, the land in front of the Medical Center, where the station would be built, was designated "park land". It was never developed as an active recreational space. Its parkland designation was transferred by City Council to a grove of old-growth oaks about a mile east, to save the oaks from being destroyed to create a parking structure. Parkland enthusiasts are not satisfied that the transfer was proper. They insist that the land must be returned to active parkland status. The land is currently used as an auxiliary parking lot for Medical Center staff.
Wake Up Washtenaw realizes that it will be far better for the environment to give employees alternatives to driving to Ann Arbor and parking their cars on property in the city. We realize that trains are the most ecologically sustainable form of powered transportation. And we are puzzled that park advocates are ignoring the CO2 reduction that convenient access to public transportation would engender. We are also puzzled why they object so strongly to using 6 or 7 acres to eliminate potentially thousands of tons of CO2 emissions, when there are more than 300 acres of active park land within a mile of the proposed Medical Center station.
If you're still not convinced, take a look at our whitepaper, "Ann Arbor Station Location: Let's Think Carefully about the University Hospital Site".