Join WWJ Newsradio 950 for a business breakfast titled The Future Of Transportation In Southeast Michigan, happening at the Anderson Theatre at The Henry Ford on May 15, 2008. This breakfast is an official event of National Transportation Week.
This two panel conference, moderated by WWJ's Murray Feldman, will discuss Detroit's future in moving freight and moving people. How can Detroit's existing infrastructure be leveraged to drive economic growth for the region? How do plans for the Aerotropolis, the Port of Detroit - our under-rated/under-valued resource, customs and borders play a role in Detroit's transportation future?
Part One: "Moving Freight"
Part Two: "Moving People"
In 2006, US Rail wanted to use eminent domain to seize private property for private development. The residents won the fight.
http://www.erieenraged.com - Erie Neighbors & Residents Against Eminent Domain
Timeline of the fight between private property owners and US Rail.
Some other facts from that failed attempt to steal private property :
US Rail intentionally mislead the public on the number of jobs that would be created in Erie Township by the intermodal project.
I believe in a 2006 Toledo Free Press story that I cannot find, one of the Toledo area groups like the Port Authority or the Regional Growth Partnership supported the Erie Township intermodal project, which means this Toledo area group indirectly supports the seizing of private property for private development.
July 2006 : Monroe City Council Resolution passes resolution to support Erie Township residents :
September 2006 : Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm says she supports Erie residents
December 2006 : Erie Township site out of running for rail yard :
Such a rail yard is predicted to fill a $400 million industrial park to be built nearby, said Howard Moss, executive vice president of Great Lakes Development, which is part of Global Partners. Together, the rail yard and industrial park are expected to create 5,000 jobs — most paying $10 to $20 an hour — within 10 years of construction, Mr. Moss said.
Mr. Moss said it was impossible to put a time line on the project until Global Partners has an agreement for land. He declined to say if the group has offers on land. But he reiterated that it will not use eminent domain, as an opposition group has said it fears. Mr. Moss said the rail yard would use new technology that would make it one of the five most efficient such yards in the country. The closest large rail yard to Toledo is in Chicago.More from the December 2006 Toledo Blade story about Erie Township not getting a rail yard :
His partner David Hall, who is president of Great Lakes, said Monroe County is preferable for the project because it would provide access to a single-line railroad service from the Pacific Ocean via the Canadian National railroad. Canadian National serves several ports in British Columbia and has a rail line into Toledo from the north that ends near a freight yard that parallels I-75, south of Alexis Road.
But Mr. Hall and others had said earlier this year that insufficient land was available near the Canadian National tracks on the Toledo side of the Ohio-Michigan border to build the container-transfer facility there. Locating on any other rail line in metro Toledo would require cargoes to be exchanged from one railroad to another somewhere in their journey from any Pacific port.
The rail networks of Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation, the other two major railroads serving the city, go only as far west as Kansas City and St. Louis, respectively, and both perform most of their western exchanges in Chicago.
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current date: 07-Jan-2009 8:36 P.M.