The prospect of bringing more passenger rail service to the Capital region has residents and city officials discussing its implications in terms of public transit and economic revitalization.
According to excerpts from the article:
Every morning around 8:30, an Amtrak train on the Blue Water Line rolls into the East Lansing station on its way from Port Huron to Chicago. As the train continues west from the station, which is located near the intersection of Harrison and Trowbridge roads, it passes by a relic of passenger train travel, the Grand Trunk Western Rail Station in Lansing’s REO Town.
The architecturally and historically significant Grand Trunk depot is abandoned and deteriorating, its windows busted out, its parking lot empty and its roof crumbling. It was, most recently, a restaurant, but has been empty since the 1990s.
But, the case for train travel might also be economic stimulus. Proponents of rail travel — either high speed rail between states, or light rail trains in cities, or commuter rail lines connecting close cities — say that trains improve people’s quality of life; trains are good for the environment because they take cars off the road; and, building rail infrastructure can create new jobs.
And, locally, some would like to see the old Grand Trunk rail station in REO Town revived and made into a hub for travelers to and from Lansing — the station is centrally located and along existing bus lines (the East Lansing station is, too).
Read the entire article here.