Residents heard details about a rail line that could connect Ann Arbor and Traverse City at a community meeting Tuesday night.
The meeting was held in Cadillac and hosted by The Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities. They published a feasibility study on the line in October.
Alex Metcalf, lead author of the study, says the first trains would run for special events like the Traverse City Film Festival before expanding to a passenger rail.
He says the line would benefit smaller cities in Michigan.
“The railroad creates job’s itself in terms of maintaining the tracks,” Metcalf says. “Our estimate is that there will be an awful lot of jobs created throughout the communities.”
Most of the forum attendees were impressed by the rail plan. Denise Justus of Tustin says she is excited the train could run by 2020.
“The fact that it could happen when I’m not too old to actually ride the train, that’s really exciting,” Justus says. “That’s what I took away from it today.”
Another meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Traverse Area District Library Woodmere branch.
