Four locations identified for potential downtown Ann Arbor light-rail station

Downtown Wally

Neal Billetdeaux showed this graphic at the Community Meeting highlighting the potential locations for a downtown Ann Arbor WALLY station.

(Courtesy Smithgroup JJR)

If a proposed light-rail line between Livingston and Washtenaw Counties becomes a reality, there will likely be at least one station in downtown Ann Arbor.

Planners and city officials met with community members Tuesday night to discuss potential locations for the station and to give an update on the planning process for the project.

“We’ve been moving too slowly for some, and too quickly for others,” landscape architect Neal Billetdeaux said.

Billetdeaux, with Smithgroup JJR, has been leading the planning efforts to determine where a station on the Washtenaw And Livingston Line (WALLY) could be located.

“By the end of the year we hope to be able to be able to present a preferred site and a concept of what a station could look like,” he said.

“Not an architectural rendering necessarily, but what the dimensions would be and how we would incorporate a platform, the station, meet American Disabilities Act regulations and what access would look like into and out of the station.”

A hypothetical route for the proposed WALLY commuter rail service linking Howell and Ann Arbor with stops in between.

According to studies done by Smithgroup, there are four segments along the line in Ann Arbor that meet the basic requirements of uninterrupted track length, straightness of the track and not being in a floodway.

From east to west, the four locations are between Hill Street and East Madison Street, between Liberty and Huron Streets, between Miller and Felch, and Felch to Summit Street.

“There seems to be a preference for the site at Washington Street,” Billetdeaux said after the meeting. “I think a lot of that is due to the proximity to downtown and the fact that it’s at grade access.”

The Washington Street location features the 415 W. Washington St. lot, a large city-owned property next to the rail line that has been brought up in the past as a potential downtown station.

All four of the potential locations are within a 15 minute walk of the under-construction Blake Transit Center, which planners used as a “city center” from which riders could use the bus system to get anywhere in Ann Arbor.

The downtown station will be in addition to a station on Plymouth Road that planners said will primarily serve University of Michigan Hospital System Employees.

There was some discussion at the meeting of attempting to have one station that would be able to service both the WALLY line and the potential future east-west Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter rail line.

Ann Arbor transportation program manager Eli Cooper compared that idea to the Secaucus Junction in New Jersey, which combines two lines but cost more than $150 million to build.

Funding of the WALLY project was a constant theme of the meeting, and the majority of questions and comments from the community members present dealt with the overall worthiness and funding of the project rather than the location of a potential downtown station.

Lanscape Architect Neal Billetdeaux spent much of Tuesday night's meeting fielding questions and comments from community members.

Multiple citizens present expressed concern that Ann Arbor would be unwilling to pass another millage to pay for the project, which studies have shown would not be self-supporting.

“As in most places with public transportation in this country, there’s usually a public subsidy required,” Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority senior planner Michael Benham said. “That’s a political conversation and will depend on what local politicians hear from their constituents.”

There were also representatives at the meeting from a “Friends of WALLY” group that has formed in Howell and claims about 50 members.

“There’s a pretty clear benefit to communities that have this kind of service,” Benham said.

“Numerous studies have shown positive impact on property values and there’s a lot of literature out there on the ability of rail oriented communities to attract investment.”

The WALLY line would run between Howell and Ann Arbor with potential stops along the way in Whitmore Lake, Hamburg and Genoa Township. The line would run on freight rails that have been updated to support transit at up to 60 miles per hour.

Benham said trains would operate in two-hour windows during the morning and evening commute and tickets would likely cost approximately $7.50 in each direction.

It has been estimated that capital costs for the project would be anywhere from $19 million to $35 million, and net operating cost after tickets and state funding is expected to be approximately $2.2 million per year.

Ben Freed is a business and general assignments reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Email him at benfreed@mlive.com and follow him on twitter at @BFreedinA2

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