(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . QLine free until 2039, asterisk [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-01 Northbound QLine streetcar 288 pulls in to the Campus Martius stop to pick up passengers. The QLine in Detroit, a streetcar that runs on Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to Grand Boulevard, is free to ride until the year 2039. The service was suspended at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. When service resumed in 2021, it was free, and it was supposed to be free through the end of the year. Then the free rides were extended to March 2022, then April, then the rest of 2022, and now the expiration date is almost two decades away. A couple of Mondays ago, I thought I was going to ride the QLine in the morning. I was gonna walk downtown, then take the QLine up to Burroughs. I would have ascertained the fare box was closed, then I would have sat down almost anywhere I want (I prefer the “forward” cabin), and a couple of stops later I would hear a recording of Carmen Harlan talking about fare inspectors. Though of course there are no fare inspectors, they’re not needed. The point is that most of the time, the streetcar is almost empty. Morning or afternoon that I ride it, I might be one of four or five passengers. It is only on Friday and Saturday nights that I’ve seen it at or near full capacity. The QLine is a great way to not get price gouged for parking downtown when going to concerts or sporting events: pay a more reasonable rate north of downtown, take the QLine south to downtown, attend your event, then take the QLine north back to the parking lot. At home on that Monday morning a couple of weeks ago, I reviewed my appointment reminder e-mail and noticed a Zoom URL. Probably none of the people I was supposed to meet up with even showed up to the office I was going to show up to. Indeed their Zoom backgrounds suggested they were each in their respective homes. Still, there are times when the QLine is very convenient for me, and it’s free. Indeed on the next Thursday after that Monday I did have reason to ride the QLine. In the morning, I got on train 292 going north, I think it was 292, it was a smooth ride. In the afternoon, I caught train 289 going south. The train was just waiting at the Amsterdam Street stop. I got on, waited for like five minutes, then I heard a voice on the radio in the cockpit say that the driver was cleared to resume. I had forgotten that sometimes some idiot parks on the track, and then all the streetcars are stuck wherever they happen to be at. I think there are only five streetcars (numbered 288 to 292), and with something like twenty-odd stops, you don’t want them to bunch up in one place. Last Thursday, when we had that big ice storm, the QLine didn’t even start running until like 11 a.m. I decided to just walk north on the QLine route. I was running late to the 2023 Hacking with the Homies conference for software developers at Tech Town, but I figured maybe the conference was also running late on account of the storm. As I approached the Ferry Street stop, I noticed that the power arm of the southbound streetcar was scraping icicles off the power line. It would be almost an hour before that streetcar would make its way to the Ferry Street stop, and I only had a ten minute walk to get to my destination. Maybe I could have taken the bus. The fare is $2.00, I had to look it up on Google Maps. But now I can’t remember if I even saw the Woodward bus running in either direction. I do remember seeing people waiting for the northbound Woodward, which is the bus I would have needed to take. There’s a stigma to riding the bus that does not extend to the QLine, which is a little ironic given that the QLine is free but the bus collects fares. There’s a catch to the QLine being free, though. Katheryne Friske for Michigan Radio: Detroit’s streetcar, the QLine, is set to receive long-term funding from the state of Michigan. Senate Bill 1223 recently passed both legislative chambers with bi-partisan support. State Senator Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City) was the primary sponsor for the bill. It’s expected to be signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The bill aims to subsidize Detroit’s newest public transit system through 2039. That includes $5 million a year going to its parent nonprofit company, M-1 Rail Inc. The subsidy would cover roughly half of the line’s current annual operating costs. The plan is to use money from Michigan’s hotel and liquor tax revenue to keep the line going. The bill was indeed signed into law by Gov. Whitmer (D-Michigan) and became Public Act No. 276 of 2022. It contains the following provision: (c) For each fiscal year beginning with the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2020 through the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2039, if the revenue in the convention facility development fund exceeds the amount distributed under section 9, subsection (5), and any distributions under subdivisions (a) and (b), up to $5,000,000.00 must be distributed to the operator of a street railway system for the operations of a street railway system as defined in section 507 of the recodified tax increment financing act, 2018 PA 57, MCL 125.4507. I guess we have to look at Public Act 57 of 2018 to actually see the terms “QLine” or “M-1 Rail” in Michigan law. So this works out to $85 million total. Fewer than 2,500 people ride the QLine each day. Let’s say that exactly 2,500 ride each day. To cover the $5 million that the taxpayers give, the 2,500 riders would have to pay $5.48 each day. According to James David Dickson in a commentary for Michigan Capitol Confidential, Michigan Republicans are the ones who pushed for the QLine subsidy. While Democrats will “hold all the gavels” in Lansing in January [this was posted on December 11, 2022], this subsidy didn’t need to wait for the new year to come into being. It was a Republican who led the effort. Senate Bills 1222 and 1223 were introduced by Sen. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City. According to a House Fiscal Agency analysis, Senate Bill 1222 would allow the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority to “enter into a public-private arrangement” and eliminate a $279 million spending cap on the authority. While the convention center law had defined a “qualifying city” as one with 700,000 residents, Detroit fell below that in the 2020 U.S. Census. The new cap is 550,000 residents. The subsidy was tucked inside Senate Bill 1223. Both bills passed both houses of the Legislature overwhelmingly. This two-decade subsidy could not have been introduced or passed but for Republicans in Lansing. The bills passed with enough support, more than two-thirds of each chamber, that they would take immediate effect if signed. Maybe in Whitmer’s position I would have signed the bill. Maybe the Republicans were setting the governor up for a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. The choice was between subsidizing something very few people use or letting the M-1 Rail company go under, leaving Detroit with tracks on Woodward Avenue that no train runs on. 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