Construction Begins On Dearborn’s New Train Station

Construction is underway on a new Passenger Rail Station in Dearborn.

The $28.2 million federally-funded station is being built on West Michigan Avenue, west of the Southfield Freeway at the entrance to Dearborn’s west downtown.

It will be built adjacent to The Henry Ford and will provide improved access to the attraction for passengers arriving by train with an additional entrance.

The pedestrian-friendly Dearborn Intermodal Passenger Rail Station will serve as a rail gateway to Dearborn and southeast Michigan. It will allow thousands of passengers per year to make connections to Amtrak’s Wolverine service that extends from Pontiac to Chicago; as well as to SMART, DDOT, Greyhound and charter buses; corporate and hotel shuttles; taxis and personal vehicles.

The station is positioned to support the eventual operation of the Detroit to Chicago High Speed Rail Corridor, which already has seen progress in western Michigan.

It will also serve the proposed Ann Arbor to Detroit commuter rail line. Eventually, the commuter rail line will allow easy bus connection to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

The station’s proximity to the Rouge River Gateway Trail on the north side of Michigan Avenue in Dearborn should prove popular to pedestrians and bicyclists and provide easy access to the campuses of the University of Michigan-Dearborn and Henry Ford Community College.

The rail station is expected to be completed by the fall of 2013. It will be a two-story brick and glass structure surrounded by ponds and landscaping.

The 16,000-square-foot intermodal station will offer amenities like free WI-FI and bicycle racks.

Inside, there will be exhibits by the City of Dearborn, Ford Motor Co., The Henry Ford, Pure Michigan and others.

It’s estimated that the intermodal station project will create 280 temporary construction trade positions and, when completed, potentially offer 25 permanent positions.

Beyond jobs for those employed in the construction and the operation of the intermodal station, the project is expected to bring dollars from commuters and tourists, be a catalyst for local business growth and lay the groundwork for future economic development.

More than 1.5 million tourists visit The Henry Ford each year.  The additional entrance to The Henry Ford will allow visitors to more easily arrive by train for their historic adventure.

The rail station is fully funded through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which allocated the money to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program.  The FRA directed the money to the Michigan Department of Transportation for the building of the City of Dearborn’s station.

Amtrak will lease the facility from the city for 20 years and will be in charge of the operations of the station. Dearborn’s current Amtrak train station, built four decades ago south of Michigan Avenue and east of the Southfield Freeway, will be reutilized.

Click here to see illustrations and other drawings of the train station.