From The Flint Journal

Michigan, the automaking capitol of America, doesn’t quite know what to do about high-speed rail and light rail lines to move people and perhaps freight around and across our state.

The Great Lakes State needs to climb aboard and join the passengers who are flocking to railroad stations.

On the Blue Water Line alone, passenger boardings have increased 26.2 percent in the past six months on the Amtrak route between Port Huron and Chicago. At the Flint station on that line, passenger use has increased 34.7 percent.

Clearly, people are moving toward what many passengers say is a better deal for their transportation dollars.

Yet in December, the Michigan Senate passed on $161 million in federal funds to make the rail route between Detroit and Kalamazoo a 110 mph high-speed line. Senators refused to pony up a $34 million state match.

So, OK, many of our highways are in terrible shape and the state can’t afford to fix them, or bridges or much else after a decade of deferred maintenance. Political talk about moving people around in Michigan always seems to center on roads, to the exclusion of nearly all else.

It’s short-sighted public policy.

We should be talking about and pursuing high-speed railroads, and light-rail systems across metropolitan areas and between cities.

A light rail running alongside Interstate 75 from Detroit to Pontiac, to Flint, then Saginaw, Bay City and beyond would make sense.

Time was many decades ago when families from the Tri-Cities could take a train to Grayling for a day of sledding or skiing, and return that same night, with nary a care about falling asleep at the wheel on the way back.

Now, passengers are telling us that they are rediscovering rail travel as gas soars past the $4-a-gallon mark.

A one-way ticket from Flint to Chicago’s downtown Union Station is $62 on the Blue Water line. Depending on the car or truck you drive, that compares very favorably with the cost of gas, and then downtown Chicago parking, for that trip. Not to mention the work a business traveler can do in that time, or the nap and a chat that tourists might enjoy.

That’s the allure of railroads — a pleasant trip with a well-rested arrival. And now, a price that begins to compete with the cost of gas, car insurance and car payments.

For people who complain that high-speed rail — or any passenger rail — needs a hefty government subsidy, consider the subsidies needed to keep highways paved and bridges from falling into the rivers they cross.

If mass transportation actually used by the masses in Michigan hasn’t yet arrived, we sure can see it coming from where we stand.

Still, our state’s leaders until very recently have been decidedly wishy-washy about rail.

Then, in early April, Gov. Rick Snyder said he was looking at applying for up to $200 million in federal money for that Detroit-to-Kalamazoo stretch of Amtrak’s Wolverine route to Chicago. In Detroit, the City Council last month OK’d a plan to sell $125 million in bonds to help finance a light rail line down Woodward Avenue from New Center to Eight Mile Road and have it operating by 2015.

They aren’t leading the way, but they are beginning to follow the lead of more passengers embarking on rail trips, of President Barack Obama’s ambitious goal to establish a network of high-speed rail lines between major cities, starting in the Midwest.

The routes for rail already exist — new ones could run down any freeway median, or alongside any state highway or city street.

Those who have ever been to Chicago have at least seen The El, the light rail line that whisks people all over town and out to the inner ring of suburbs. Those who have taken that train report it’s easy to use — and light on the wallet.

Which brings us to our aversion in Michigan to using mass transportation.
It isn’t just for people who can’t afford a car, or whose jalopy is broken. It’s for everyone, at bargain fares.

At the price of gas, people climbing down from the Blue Water line at Flint tell us it’s an option they’re glad they chose; they are bound to be repeat customers.

It just requires a different way of thinking.

Oh, and by the way, does anybody know any machinists, metalworkers, foundrymen and investors looking to start a new industry in mid-Michigan?

We can build light rail equipment right here, run them around the state, and ship them on Lakers and freight trains to the world.

Rail is right for Michigan.

Michigan’s leaders need to decide that they’re ready for rail.

They can start by talking with their constituents, who more and more are electing to take the train.