ANN ARBOR, MI - The private company that owns the freight line running north and south through Ann Arbor is open to considering a proposal from the city for a greenway trail along the tracks within the railroad corridor.
That's the message the city is relaying after a recent meeting between the city's greenway project team and representatives for the Ann Arbor Railroad and its owner, Kansas-based Watco Railroad Company Holdings Inc.
In an email sent this week to members of the Citizen Advisory Committee for the Allen Creek Greenway master plan project, Connie Pulcipher, systems planner for the city, said the city's team had a busy and productive last couple months and received constructive feedback on four potential route alignments for a greenway trail. The feedback came from residents and other stakeholders, including neighborhood and business groups, environmental groups, boards and commissions, public and nonprofit groups, and other agencies.
Additionally, Pulcipher wrote in the email, both the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Ann Arbor Railroad/Watco have expressed willingness to have their engineering and legal departments review a proposal.
She said the recent feedback has resulted in a draft preferred plan that will be discussed in detail at the next CAC meeting on April 19.
The meeting is open to the public and starts at 8:30 a.m. inside the council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron St.
City officials and a consultant working for the city declined to give further details on how the recent meeting with Watco went, saying only that it will be discussed on April 19. City officials earlier this month declined to say when the meeting was happening and only confirmed the date it happened afterward in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Ann Arbor News/MLive.
City records obtained under FOIA show the city's greenway project team, which includes city officials and consultants from SmithGroupJJR, traveled to Toledo to meet with Watco representatives on March 6.
The Ann Arbor Railroad is based in Toledo.
Laura McNichol, Watco's vice president of government and industry relations, was among those in attendance.
The Ann Arbor Railroad's general manager, commercial manager and director of automotive operations also were included on email exchanges setting up the meeting with city officials and SmithGroupJJR.
Asked to comment on Watco's willingness to allow a greenway trail along the tracks through Ann Arbor, as well as possibly a commuter rail service that's being explored by various government entities, McNichol provided a brief statement via email on Saturday, March 25.
"Watco is waiting on an official proposal from the city of Ann Arbor following the completion of its feasibility study regarding a trail through the city," she said. "Further, we will continue to have conversations with the city as it moves forward on its various transportation goals."
After decades of talking about the idea of an Allen Creek Greenway, the city is working to come up with a master plan by the end of this year, with City Council adoption of the plan expected in early 2018.
A separate study has explored options for a commuter rail service on the same tracks from destinations north of Ann Arbor to downtown.
Neal Billetdeaux, a consultant with SmithGroupJJR who has worked on both the commuter rail and greenway projects, said Watco is open to allowing commuter trains on the freight line it owns from Barton Drive into downtown.
It would require making some changes to existing freight operations, and Billetdeaux said there's a plan for that.
Right now the Great Lakes Central Railroad brings freight cars down from points north to the Osmer siding, which is by Pontiac Trail.
"Ann Arbor Railroad goes up to the Osmer siding, picks up those cars, and takes them down," Billetdeaux said. "In talking to Ann Arbor Railroad and Watco, they were not interested in operating freight service with commuter rail, and so what we've done is shifted that Osmer siding down to Ellsworth Road.
"So now Great Lakes Central will come down to Ellsworth with the cars, Ann Arbor Railroad will go get them at Ellsworth, and now there's no intermingling with Ann Arbor Railroad and commuter rail, and they were open to that. Nothing has been finalized, but they were open to that approach."
Billetdeaux, who helped organize the March 6 meeting between the railroad and the city's greenway team, declined to say what was discussed at the meeting.
The greenway trail that's envisioned along the historic alignment of the Allen Creek would run parallel to the railroad and would be separated from the train tracks by a physical buffer and fencing. Thousands of people per day already legally cross the tracks on foot, on bicycle and in cars at established crossings at Summit Street, Liberty Street, First Street, William Street, Ashley Street, Jefferson Street, Main Street, Madison Street, Hill Street, Hoover Avenue, the middle of the University of Michigan's Athletic Campus and State Street.
It would be similar to another greenway trail known as the Border-to-Border Trail that runs along the MDOT tracks through Ann Arbor, separated by fencing, providing commuting and recreation options for pedestrians and cyclists.