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 Streetcars returned to Woodward Avenue in Detroit for the first time in 61 years with the 12 May 2017 opening of the 3.3-mi segment of the QLine from Larned Street to West Grand Boulevard.
M-1 Rail owns and operates the QLine, a streetcar loop that
will serve 12 locations on Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit through
midtown, New Center, and the North End. The US$140-million project is claimed
to be the first public-private partnership deal to be funded by private
businesses and philanthropic organizations in partnership with local, state,
and federal governments.
Supporters of the project include Bank of America, Detroit
Downtown Development Authority, Detroit Medical Center, Ford Foundation, Ford
Motor Company, General Motors, JPMorgan Chase, the Michigan Department of
Transportation, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and the U.S.
Department of Transportation.
Federal support was provided through a US$25-million grant
from the Transport Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. In 2007 the
project's backers formed the nonprofit M-1 Rail to lead the design,
construction, and operation of the 20-station line. Major construction began in
July 2014.
Services are operated by a fleet of six bidirectional
Liberty light-rail vehicles supplied by the Brookville Equipment Corporation.
Designed and manufactured at Brookville's Pennsylvania manufacturing plant, the
QLine streetcar vehicles operate without the aid of an overhead contact system
for 60% of the route (Figure 2), instead using the streetcars' battery onboard
energy storage system (OESS).
The OESS draws power from 750-V rechargeable lithium-ion
batteries. The batteries are recharged by a local overhead wire at certain
locations. The vehicles also operate in catenary-free mode around the line's
depot.
Other key features of the vehicles, which are 66.5-ft long
and 8-ft, 8-in wide, include over 70% low-floor area, station-level passenger
boarding, and the capability to comfortably transport up to 125 total
passengers at a time to key business, shopping, entertainment, and dining
centers along the route.
The first Liberty streetcars with the OESS off-wire
capability were delivered to Dallas in 2015. Additional Liberty streetcars have
been ordered for Oklahoma City and Milwaukee.
Full article: IEEE Vehicular Technology
Magazine, Volume 12, Number 3, September 2017 | 
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