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Jackson asks for westward extension of Detroit-Ann Arbor line

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

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It's easy to make the southeast Michigan connection when thinking about Detroit and Ann Arbor, but Jackson?

Most people wouldn't consider the birthplace of the Republican Party part of the Metro Detroit mix, but Jackson's leaders are lobbying to be let into the game by including it in one of the region's marquee projects - the Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter rail line.

Currently the project's first phase, set to become a reality in the fall of 2010, stretches between Ann Arbor and Detroit with stops at Ypsilanti, Metro Airport and Dearborn. That's it for now, according to Carmine Palombo, director of transportation programs for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, which is spearheading the project.

He added there is talk of extending the line north into Oakland County with stops at Royal Oak, Birmingham/Troy and Pontiac as part of a second phase. SEMCOG is also looking at utilizing Jackson's rail yard as a base for the line, but extending the line to downtown Jackson isn't in the cards, at least not for the project's first phase.

Local leaders in Jackson are trying to change that. They argue that if the line uses it rail yard, which would save the project significant money in start-up construction costs, it makes sense to extend the line less than a mile into downtown Jackson's existing train station.

Jackson is about 35 miles west of Ann Arbor. Bruce Inosencio, a spokesman for the Jackson Citizens for Economic Growth, points out that section of I-94 that connects the two communities is heavily travelled, making the extension of the line no-brainer.

"It's very busy. It's very heavily utilized," Inosencio says. "There are a number of companies here in Jackson who have a lot of workers from Washtenaw and Wayne counties."

He claims that 61 percent of the 300 employees of one Jackson company --he declined to name it-- live in the Ann Arbor area or east of it, hoping to make skeptics warm to the idea bringing Jackson online with the project.

Source: Carmine Palombo, director of transportation programs for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and Bruce Inosencio, a spokesman for the Jackson Citizens for Economic Growth
Writer: Jon Zemke