Rapid transit bus system could be ready in 2 years, Detroit City Council told

from the Detroit Free Press:



Metro Detroit could run sleek, new rapid-transit buses along major roads like Woodward and Gratiot in as little as two years if state lawmakers approve a regional management agency to oversee -- and raise crucial funding for -- the new system, advocates told the Detroit City Council on Thursday.

"We will be in a position to move rapidly," Sean Libberton, a top planning official at the Federal Transit Administration, told the council just before a workshop on the proposal.

Legislation to create a regional transit authority to operate rapid-transit buses connecting downtown Detroit to key suburbs and Metro Airport has been stalled in Lansing over concerns from Detroit officials who worry the plan would take away too much control of transit from the city, and from suburban lawmakers leery of funding a bus system that they don't believe suburbanites will use.

Earlier Thursday, U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a $30-million grant to the Detroit Department of Transportation and the suburban SMART bus system to upgrade their fleets with new buses, though the number of new vehicles wasn't immediately clear. The money will pay to renovate facilities and purchase GPS equipment to better track bus locations and time its routes. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20120720/NEWS05/207200442/Rapid-transit-bus-system-could-be-ready-in-2-years-Detroit-City-Council-told