Cities along new passenger rail lines receive much more than just a fancy train station and new way to travel. Regular passenger train service can become a catalyst that transforms the way people get around town.

As the gateway to a city, train stations provide public transportation agencies with an opportunity to make their best impressions, and when agencies take advantage of this, riders are provided with a phenomenal experience.

Once the North-South Passenger Rail line is in service, passengers will need flexible and reliable ways of traveling to their local destination after arriving in a given city.

Some of these passengers will disembark with bikes they’d stashed away on the train, planning to pedal over to nearby trails. College students will arrive with backpacks as they make their way to campus. Others will step onto the platform with strollers on route to a family vacation, briefcases as they commute to work, and all the other items and agendas that compel us to travel.

Completing the last leg of a trip could be as simple as a stroll down the sidewalk to a hotel. In other cases, the best way may be riding a bike, a quick hop on a local bus, renting a car, or other solutions a local transportation agency may offer to help travelers to their destinations safely, efficiently and affordably.

In the coming year, towns along the line will begin planning how their local and regional transportation networks will accommodate rail passengers as a part of the Northern Michigan Passenger Rail Phase II Study process. In each community, planners will investigate how a train station can serve as a catalyst for expanding the type, range, and integration of transportation offered.

Kalamazoo’s transportation agency, Metro, manages the city’s AMTRAK station, which serves as the central transfer point for most local transportation options and is a stop for several private long-distance bus operators. Credit: Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority

I spoke with Carrie Thompson, the Executive Director of the Cadillac/Wexford Transit Authority, WexExpress, about the benefits a train station could provide to area public transportation. Carrie and WexExpress have been champions of the North-South Passenger Rail Project in part because Cadillac will see a host of benefits from the line’s completion, including improvements to its public transit operations.

Since trains stopped running to Cadillac, WexExpress has played a key role in keeping the area vibrant by helping people get around without a car.

WexExpress doesn’t have fixed routes, and instead operates on a point-to-point basis. So instead of waiting at stops on regular bus routes, riders request a bus pickup and specify a destination, which can become tricky to manage as ridership rises. Reintroducing passenger rail service “would provide us with a great station for bus transfers as we look to establish fixed routes,” Carrie says. “It also would lead to predictable waves of potential bus riders at a central point—the train station—which would further feed these regular services.”

Using the station in this way would allow it to act as a community hub for Cadillac, and more widely, Wexford County. A hub with diverse transportation offerings would be convenient for locals and tourists alike—taking people to homes, friends, jobs, schools, healthcare appointments, grocery stores, leisure shopping, and the myriad tourist attractions the area has to offer. The higher passenger densities produced by a transportation hub would make creating fixed routes that connect Cadillac, Mesick, Buckley, Manton, and other Wexford County municipalities more practical.

Rail service can further encourage people to use public transportation in the community, Carrie predicts, because “creating a positive association between the transit agency and rail service can help break down mental barriers that might stop some people from using transit.”

Additionally, a sophisticated hub with many transportation options helps to encourage riders Carrie defines as “choice transportation users”—people who can get around another way but choose to take transit. “Part of that is incorporating multimodality into the station—things such as bikeshare options, trails, perhaps a water taxi,” Carrie said. Wexford County already has the transformative vision; all that’s missing is the train.

Brightline’s West Palm Beach station opened in 2018 and provides a good example of interconnected transportation options. The hub includes a bikeshare dock and car sharing spots. Planners are studying a connection to the regional commuter rail network.

Eric Lingaur, Director of Communications and Development at Traverse City’s Bay Area Transportation Agency—another champion of the North-South Rail Project—also sees the reintroduction of passenger rail service to the area as beneficial. He writes, “the addition of more people traveling to our region via train without their vehicles offers the opportunity for increased public transit usage.” His thoughts echo Carrie’s point that when passengers arrive at their stations along the line, they’ll need a way to get to their final destination.

Eric also supports the “possibility of some type of integrated fare combining a passenger train ticket and bus pass.” This concept would allow train passengers to buy a pass for local transit and use it from wherever they are for the duration of their stay. Such integration would likely further boost local transit ridership and contribute to the creation of more of those “choice transportation users” Carrie described. That’s a win-win-win; not only does the transit agency have more riders, but passengers have a more convenient experience, and local congestion and traffic emissions are reduced.

A train station can help a transit system to flourish; in Holland, MI, the majority of bus routes radiate outward from the Louis Padnos Transportation Center, the city’s AMTRAK station.

The ideas that Carrie and Eric describe have already been put into practice elsewhere in Michigan and around the country, to good effect. Holland, Michigan’s Louis Padnos Transportation Center (photo at top) is a combined AMTRAK station and bus stop/depot. The center is the primary point for transferring between bus lines, and the convergence of transportation options makes it the main hub of the area’s transportation network. Beth Higgs, Deputy Director of the Macatawa Area Express Transportation Authority, which operates the center, wrote, “After arriving in Holland, visitors or commuters can hop on a fixed route bus to move around the Holland or Zeeland community. It is an easy, affordable, and convenient way to get to work, shopping, entertainment, and so much more.”

Passenger rail and public transportation are a powerful combination.

Public transit authorities play an essential role in helping communities along the proposed passenger rail line function. Reintroducing passenger rail service would catalyze their efforts to improve the rider experience in a way Michigan residents have hardly seen. After all, our passenger rail network hasn’t expanded to serve new areas since the foundation of AMTRAK. Local officials are excited to bring the change. “When a train full of passengers does eventually arrive here in Traverse City, we’ll have public transit ready and waiting to help them continue their journey or reach their final destination,” says Traverse City’s Lingaur.

Michael Goldman Brown, Jr. is Groundwork’s Transportation Specialist. michael.goldmanbrown@groundworkcenter.org