DETROIT – You couldn’t miss it. The big red-and-white rail car had its own entourage guiding it into Detroit Tuesday night. People on the street stopped, stared and snapped pictures.
The first QLine rail car was delivered from the Pennsylvania manufacturer two months ahead of schedule. Paul Childs, chief operating officer of the M-1 Rail Line, has his team going seven days a week, and the first car arriving is a major milestone.
"We’re going 10 to 12 hours every day, seven days a week," Childs said. "We’re going to get this delivered for the city of Detroit."
While completion of the M-1 Rail is slated for spring of next year, this first car will be seen whizzing up and down Woodward well before that.
In the next three weeks, expect to see the inaugural car up and running, but without passengers as the M-1 team tests it out.
Passenger operations are scheduled to start in spring 2017.
The $140 million project will extend 3.3 miles north along Woodward from downtown. The three-piece streetcars are each 66 feet long and will carry an average of 125 passengers per car.