Metro Detroit's attempt to organize for mass transit appears to be falling part.
Chad Livengood of the Detroit News reports the coalition seeking to consolidate management of public transportation in southeast Michigan is cracking, which could jeopardize $25 million in federal funding for a Detroit street car line.
Washtenaw County officials no longer want to be part of a four-county regional transit authority while suburban Detroit lawmakers opposed the authority's proposed zoning and condemnation powers and high-speed bus routes competing for congested road space with motorists.
Without an agreement in the Legislature's lame duck session that begins today, millions from Washington for the planned M-1 Woodward Avenue street car plan could be lost.The proposed legislation would put the regional transit authority in charge of coordinating SMART and DDOT bus routes — which sometimes overlap — and establish rapid-transit bus routes with dedicated bus lanes along the region's busiest corridors.
