A Final Plea For Transit In Southwest Michigan

"Detours and dead ends have blocked the road to mass transit in southeast Michigan for decades. I thought about listing our history of transit troubles in this column, but you've heard it all before. Besides, there's not enough Prozac in the world to get me through it.

We need a success to build on -- desperately -- or resign ourselves to second-class status while watching our federal tax dollars go to new transit systems in regions like Denver, or even Grand Rapids, that have their acts together.

John Hertel, the new CEO of the Regional Transit Coordinating Council, hopes to do what no one else has done: Develop a transportation plan that all of southeast Michigan will get behind. For now, he and his deputy, John Swatosh, are publicly saying little and listening a lot.

So far, Hertel has met with the leaders of 50 of the 132 cities, villages and townships in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. He plans to meet most of the rest by year's end, when a consultant hired by Hertel's group will recommend a transportation plan, including how to pay for the system. My guess is that it will be a combination of light rail, bus rapid transit and basic bus service, funded by a regional sales tax."