Ford is keeping the passenger tracks at Michigan Central Station

Rochelle Riley | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Ford reveals rendering of Detroit train station's future Ford reveals rendering of Detroit train station's future

Dave Dubensky has his work cut out for him.

The chairman and CEO of Ford Land, who will oversee the redesign of the Michigan Central Station and its integration into the Corktown neighborhood, is going to be hit with every idea in the book for the iconic building that the Ford Motor Co. plans to transform from the city's number one sign of urban decay into a ground-breaking hub for future transportation.

And Dubensky has already begun a series of community meetings, with potential sketches to show the neighbors.

But what many folks wanted to know is what I asked: Will it still be a train station?

And the answer is a resounding "maybe."

More: Thousands get a glimpse of Detroit Train Station ahead of construction

"That question is a lot bigger than I am," Dubensky said in an interview. "But one of the things I can tell you we will do for sure is that when we redo the station, we will ensure that we protect four passenger tracks. Right now, there's two freight rail lines that run behind the station, and when we redo the back of the station, we'll ensure that whatever we do, we'll have the capability to bring passenger rail through there again.

"The whole question of whether or not we can get it down there is more of a regional transportation issue that is lot bigger than me," he said. "But we would protect that future."

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Speculation about the station's future is rampant following Ford's purchase of the building from Morouns, who let it sit decaying for decades. That the passenger tracks will be preserved, keeping hope alive that trains may one day run on them, will be good news to folks like Arthur Bridgeforth Jr., who wants trains, too. He remembers his last train ride out of the Michigan Central Station in the summer of ’87, back when everyone called the station the Central Depot and a lot of travel was typically on the rails.

“I … second the motion of having trains at the Central Depot again,” he wrote me a day after the Ford Motor Company celebrated its purchase of the abandoned building with a community concert and walks through the cavernous treasure.

Ford Motor Chairman Bill Ford negotiated the purchase of the building from the Moroun family, and the company plans to turn the iconic 1913 structure into a hub to study driver-less cars and to ensure that it becomes an asset for the Corktown neighborhood.

“I had the great fortune to take a train to the Central Depot in the summer of 87, the year before it closed,” Bridgeforth wrote. “I was doing a summer internship in Providence, R.I., with the Providence Journal. While I was there, Detroit experienced the tragic crash of Northwest Flight 255.

"I was freaked out, and I was all the way in Providence," he said. "I'll never forget that Sunday night. ... I flew into Boston to get to Providence that summer. But I was spooked about flying back to Detroit. I had taken the train to New York City a couple of times from Providence that summer. So I decided to take the train back to Detroit. I had been to Penn Station during the summer. On my way to Detroit I went through (New York’s) Grand Central Terminal, and I saw the opulence of that train station. When I got home to Detroit, I saw a similar opulence at the Central Depot, just with less people.

"I would love to see it come full circle, similar to what Chicago did with Union Station," he said. "It's a natural, given Ford's working purpose for the Central Depot being for its Urban Mobility division. We can only hope.”

Sally Carpenter has fond memories as well.

"About all I can remember about the old Michigan Central building itself is the sheer size of it. And, its architectural beauty," the 82-year-old wrote in an email.

"I grew up in Milan, Mich., so I wasn't used to such grandeur," she wrote. " I more often went to the Ann Arbor train station for travel, and for drop off and pick up of others. But on a couple of occasions, when I went to see someone off, or on one occasion when I was a senior in high school (1953) to actually get on the train there to begin a school class trip to NYC. It seemed like the train stayed underground for a very long time, but I'm not sure how long it actually was! The other thing about the building that I loved was its restaurant. The food was excellent, service was wonderful, and you ate at tables with tablecloths and nice china and silver. It was actually sometimes a destination for me and my parents. Oh, the memories! I am ...very happy to see the Fords holding up a commitment to bring some of the station's dignity and beauty back.'

Those recollections from Bridgeforth and Carpenter made me want more. Send me your memories, about glorious journeys that began or ended at the Michigan Central Station — and send photos, lots of photos — to rriley99@freepress.com.

Contact Rochelle Riley at rriley99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @rochelleriley. Find information about her book "The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery" at www.rochelleriley.com.