Residents help MDOT develop rail plan

From the Traverse City Record-Eagle

Heather Shumaker just returned from a family trip to Boston, and she did her traveling by train.

“I think a lot of the people who come to Traverse City, whether they live here or are tourists, would use a passenger train,” she said. “I think because we don’t have an interstate coming to Traverse City, it is especially important to have a train link. If we could just connect to Grand Rapids, we could connect to the whole country.”

Shumaker, of Traverse City, was among the more than 70 people who in the first hour filed through an open-house forum on rail service in Michigan hosted by the state’s Department of Transportation at the Traverse City Michigan Works office on Wednesday. State officials are seeking citizen input to develop a new state rail plan, something that’s required to receive federal transportation dollars dedicated to railways.