A three-party memorandum of understanding signed Oct. 15 commits $40 million to engineering and environmental work for a new multimodal transit hub that could restore passenger rail service to Michigan’s central Detroit campus by the end of the decade.
The agreement, jointly announced by the Michigan Department of Transportation, the city of Detroit and Central Michigan, combines $10 million in federal RAISE funding, short for Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, with $30 million in state contributions to launch the preliminary design and environmental review.
According to documents reviewed by ENR, the federal award was issued earlier this year and remains active, with no indication of termination, although RAISE grants are subject to commitment deadlines that determine when funds are formally committed.
Officials said the planning phase will define the project’s scope, delivery approach and schedule before any construction moves forward.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said the plan “lays the foundation for a new multimodal transportation hub that will grow our regional economy,” calling it a critical investment in both “mobility and opportunity.”
A symbolic return
Completed in 1913 and once one of the nation’s most prominent rail terminals, Michigan Central Station closed to passengers in 1988 and sat vacant for decades before Ford Motor Co. I acquired the property in 2018.
Wild grass once overtook the grounds of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station after decades of neglect. Closed to passengers in 1988, the Beaux-Arts landmark became a symbol of the city’s decline until Ford Motor Co. restoration work began in 2018.
Image courtesy of Central Michigan
After a $740 million restoration, Ford reopened the Beaux-Arts landmark in 2024 as the centerpiece of its Corktown Mobility Innovation Campus.
The new MOU extends this revitalization beyond architecture. If implemented, it would return Amtrak and intercity bus operations to the site for the first time in nearly 40 years. A new facility at Michigan Central would likely replace Detroit’s aging Amtrak station in the city’s New Center neighborhood.
City infrastructure chief Sam Krassenstein said residents “deserve a first-class facility for bus and train service, and this deal puts us on the path to making that happen.”
Project partners said the funding covers engineering and environmental review and will help define the ownership structure and delivery model. MDOT plans to coordinate with Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration to assess the feasibility of restoring intercity service.
Beth Kmetz-Armitage, director of business development for Central Michigan, said the initiative is about “strengthening regional connections, both regional immediately in Ann Arbor and broadly across the Midwest to Chicago.”
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While no final alignment has been set, MDOT officials said the plan could extend Amtrak’s Wolverine Line from Chicago to Windsor, Ont., to connect with VIA Rail service to Toronto. Amtrak has indicated that this cross-border link could be achieved with minimal new capital investment, pending regulatory and customs agreements.
Kmetz-Armitage told a news conference that an existing rail line already connects Toronto to Chicago under the Detroit River, but is currently only used for freight traffic.
Plans call for a new multimodal transit center west of the station, on land owned by Ford, where passengers could board starting in 2028. According to Michigan Central, early projections estimate about 66,000 annual riders once the center is operational.
The restored station itself would not serve as a boarding point; instead, travelers to and from Canada would go through customs and border control in Windsor, Ontario. He said the planned facility would also improve westbound connections along Amtrak’s Wolverine corridor into Chicago.
The MOU sets 2026 for completion of environmental studies and 2028 for final design and procurement, with operations expected by 2030.
A site map of Ford Motor Co.’s Central Michigan Innovation Campus. in Detroit’s Corktown district shows the planned location of the future multimodal transit hub adjacent to the restored station. Image courtesy of Central Michigan
Technical and financial context
MDOT’s 2023 Corridor Identification and Development submission to the Federal Railroad Administration describes the Detroit–Pontiac–Chicago corridor as a 304-mile route spanning Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National and Conrail.
The corridor has received multiple federal grants since 2010 for signaling, track improvements, and speed improvements; Wolverine’s on-time performance averaged just 62 percent in fiscal year 2022, according to MDOT’s application citing Amtrak’s status report.
The department manages about $100 million annually from the state’s Comprehensive Transportation Fund for passenger and freight programs. Downtown Detroit would likely replace and consolidate the Howard Street Intercity Bus Terminal downtown and the aging Amtrak station in the city’s New Center neighborhood.
Krassenstein said the plan builds on the station’s historic role as a “gateway” to Detroit, adding that reestablishing rail service “in the station’s shadow” revives a core part of the city’s infrastructure identity.
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No contractor or joint venture has been named for the effort and no procurement has been issued. MDOT and city officials said design and procurement decisions will follow the completion of the environmental and preliminary engineering phases.
Bradley C. Wieferich, Michigan’s state transportation director, said the partnership “is a positive step in further developing Central Michigan into a true transportation hub and innovation ecosystem,” but added that additional federal coordination will be needed before the procurement.
While Detroit-based Christman–Brinker handled Ford’s restoration of Michigan Central Station, that joint venture has not been tied to the new rail hub. Public procurement records reviewed Oct. 16 show no active RFQs or RFPs through the state’s SIGMA VSS or the city’s BidNet Direct portals.
Obstacles remain
The project faces complex integration issues that require coordination with freight operators for access routes and platform space, as well as a review of regulatory and customs requirements under the 2019 US-Canada Land, Rail, Sea and Air Pre-Authorization Agreement.
The environmental review will draw on archived FRA Tier 1 materials for the Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac corridor to update alignments and user forecasts.
The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments regional research on the Ann Arbor-Detroit commuter rail corridor will inform how the core interacts with local traffic and the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Michigan Central CEO Josh Sirefman said the project “brings together our legacy infrastructure and our future mobility,” adding that the center aims to link “innovation, community access and cross-border connectivity.”
Whether those ambitions materialize, he said, will depend on aligning funding sources and “translating years of vision into engineered access and buildable design.”
