Troy-Birmingham Multi-Modal Transit Center

ARRA Funding Moves Project Forward

With an $8 million contribution from the Federal government, the Troy-Birmingham Multi-Modal Transit Center could break ground this summer. Coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the funding is part of $8 billion to 31 states to develop a nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service along 13 corridors.

The project, already in discussion for two years in the communities, is projected to create 106 short- and long-term jobs, both in construction and staffing the center once it is opened. The center will serve as a regional hub for public transportation, using Amtrak infrastructure, while also providing a transfer point to bus services from SMART, the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, and taxis.

The real economic benefit resulting from the center will be for area residents who travel not just in metropolitan Detroit but to other locations around the state and the country, according to Troy Mayor Louise Schilling.

Until now, the fate of the center had been in doubt. An agreement with a local developer who donated the land for the transit center said that ground needed to be broken by the end of 2010. Until the Federal government's commitment to funding part of the program, state and local officials had only raised a fraction of the funds necessary to begin work.