Dan Martin / news@whmi.com


Someday in the not-too-distant future, you may be able to hop a train from Ann Arbor to Traverse City, Petosky or Cadillac.

The goal of a passenger train connecting Southeastern and Northern Michigan is getting a bit closer to completion, as phase two of the longtime plan is now in the works.

The ‘Northern Michigan Passenger Rail Project” is headed by The Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities. The push began in 2018, when the Groundwork Center and a number of state, federal, and community partners began looking into the idea of how to have passenger rail service on an existing freight line between Northern and southeast Michigan.

According to Jim Bruckbauer, Transportation Program Director, it could include stops in Traverse City, Petoskey, Cadillac, Ann Arbor and possibly Detroit. The project, now in phase two, is about to launch a national search for a transportation planning firm and seek input from local communities along the proposed line.

Bruckbauer says, “Whoever is selected will be using existing data and some of their transportation planning methods to understand what makes sense in terms of train speeds, where the stops will be located, what infrastructure is needed around potential stops to connect people to their destinations.”

Bruckbauer says, “it’s going to be a ground up rather than a top-down planning process, gathering feedback from local communities, adding “The surveying should take between one and two years.”