Michigan state representatives Bill Rogers and Wayne Schmidt have set up a task force studying the possibility of a solar-powered, magnetically levitated, high-speed rail line between Detroit and Lansing. A group calling itself the Interstate Traveler Company claims that it can privately finance the entire $1.3-billion cost of the line, and it expects to earn enough profits to be able to give half its gross revenues to the state in exchange for letting them build the lines along interstate highway rights of way.
Interstate Traveler estimates that this 60-mile system connecting Ypsilanti, Willow Run, and Detroit Airport will cost $920 million to build but earn $1.3 billion in annual revenues. But how will the tracks fit into the tunnels that go under the Detroit Airport taxiways? Click image for a larger view.
Interstate Traveler claims it has enough financial backing already to buy an old General Motors factory to use in building the components that will eventually become mag-lev tracks and vehicles. Interstate Traveler’s founder, someone named Justin Sutton, casually talks about spending billions of dollars building additional lines connecting Detroit to Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, and officials in Ypsilanti seem to take him seriously.
