On the day the Detroit People Mover opened to the public in 1987, the elevated train was so packed with eager riders a voice on the loudspeaker asked those in the crowded cars to only ride once so others would have a chance as well.

That late July day was a showcase of a city’s hopes as much as a celebration of a new, automated transit system. Controversy over the more-than-$200-million price tag and construction delays did not deter the dignitaries and thousands of onlookers from an event marked by ceremonial cake-cutting, a balloon release and a block party.

Thirty years later, those festivities, as recounted in Free Press articles from the time, are long forgotten for a system that continues on a 2.9-mile route around a now resurgent downtown Detroit. The People Mover in some ways seems connected to a Detroit of the past, when the attraction of areas in and around downtown for many was limited to key locales such as Greektown, Cobo Center, Renaissance Center and Joe Louis Arena.

With the still-new Little Caesars Arena about half a mile away from the nearest station, additional development farther north on Woodward and the closing and expected demolition of the Joe, which provided the People Mover with riders heading to and from Red Wings games and concerts, questions about the future of a system once derided by Time magazine as a “Horizontal Elevator to Nowhere” seem apt.

In May, the city’s latest transit experiment, the QLINE, opened to even more fanfare than did the People Mover. The streetcar line offers a potentially competitive or complementary vision of downtown transit with street-level stations and the possibility of expansion, including farther north on Woodward Avenue.

Read more:

New bus service will get you to Metro Airport from downtown in 1 hour

QLINE ridership drops somewhat after free period, carries about 3,000 per day

People Mover supporters say the system remains relevant because of an influx of new residents in the area and its ability to easily move people around downtown. There's also the possibility that whatever replaces the Joe Louis Arena could make up for some of the lost ridership as could a successful landing of Amazon's second headquarters in Detroit.

The system also has its regular riders and boosters, such as Dania Khytaz, 26, a resident of Riverfront Towers who has lived downtown for two years and uses the People Mover to get to her job at Quicken Loans.

“This was a big thing for me living downtown,” she said last week of the People Mover and her move from Grosse Ile. Khytaz would like to see more security on the People Mover, especially at night, but she’s clearly a fan.

“It’s a piece of Detroit. I don’t think they should get rid of it or anything,” Khytaz said.

Riding the elevated rails

On a typical weekday, it’s not unusual to see families or small groups of out-of-town visitors and regular riders climb on and off nearly empty People Mover cars, while on certain days, cars can be packed. The system has its busiest ridership during downtown conventions and events, such as next month’s North American International Auto Show. The system claimed total ridership of almost 2.2 million in 2016, down from 2.4 million in 2015.

Among the 13 stations, Greektown, with its connection to one of Detroit’s three casinos, was listed as the most popular, followed by Renaissance Center and Cobo, according to 2015 figures. Joe Louis, where Khytaz catches the train, was No. 4 that year.

Many riders consider the system more dependable than the QLINE or local buses, but note that it runs in only one direction, clockwise, although it has run in the opposite direction in the past.

That’s the reason Ryan Gault, 27, and Alexandria Darin, 30, prefer to use the People Mover to get to their marketing jobs at the Renaissance Center from their apartment building near the Broadway station and not for the return trip home. It’s more than twice as many stops to get home so they often walk unless it’s particularly cold or the weather is bad.

Marlin Diaz, 25, of Woodhaven, said he parks in Greektown for free through a membership at the casino and rides to his restaurant job near the Financial District stop using a $100 annual pass. It saves him the cost of parking, which can be $20 per day.

The elevated loop does offer picturesque views of sections of downtown, the Detroit River and the Windsor skyline. One man riding with his young son on his lap last week noted that they sometimes stop for breakfast downtown and ride the People Mover because his son likes trains.

Robin Boyle, a professor of urban planning at Wayne State University, said the People Mover might have a more important role to play now than when it was built because people are once again moving downtown and the area is drawing visitors.

“It moves around, gets people from A to B … it works extremely well,” Boyle said. “It has value as an urban amenity.”

He suggested some investment in sprucing up the system’s image.

“It needs a little more panache, a little more razzmatazz. That would put it in the same conversation as QLINE,” Boyle said.

The system has seen a few updates. The Grand Circus Park station had a series of renovations costing about $2 million in the last couple of years, adding interior stairs and an elevator to provide access for disabled riders as well as modern touches such as tempered glass and adjustable LED lighting.

The biggest complaints from some regular riders deal with the occasional malfunctioning air conditioning on cars during warm months or sometimes non-working heating lamps on platforms when it's cold. The system has touted a strong safety record for much of its operation, although last year it recorded its first fatality when 53-year-old Michael Whyte of Detroit fell between train cars and was dragged to his death. During the auto show in 2015, the system also suffered a derailment, but no injuries were reported.

A selling point

For those whose job it is is to sell Detroit as a convention destination, the People Mover can help.

Deanna Majchrzak, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, said her organization includes the People Mover in its promotional materials.

Majchrzak said the People Mover works well for anyone staying at the Marriott hotel at the Renaissance Center and traveling to Cobo because it offers a direct connection. There’s also no QLINE route along Jefferson Avenue, although streetcar backers have talked about the possibility if the streetcar system ever expands.

“The People Mover is a definite asset,” Majchrzak said.

But that asset is not free. The City of Detroit, for example, pays $6.5 million every year as an operating subsidy, and Act 51, the state's main transportation funding formula, provides another $5.6 million. The People Mover receives federal funding as well, but whether that is simply part of the Act 51 disbursement was not immediately clear.

Subsidies are a fact of life for transit systems, but collections from the People Mover’s 75-cent fare do not come close to covering the cost of operations. Fare gate, token and pass sales account for only about $1.48 million in the People Mover's 2018 budget, which lists operating expenses of almost $18 million. The People Mover's cost per unlinked passenger trip, according to a federal transit database, was $7.47 in 2016.

When asked about those figures, People Mover staff explained that the system's costs also include providing security for Detroit Department of Transportation buses.

"During the last two years, the (Detroit Transportation Corp.) has taken on securing the DDOT coaches. Deducting the additional cost associated with those services would reduce DTC’s cost per trip ride by an estimated 15%," according to a statement.

When the plans for the QLINE, which runs along Woodward Avenue, were being discussed with federal transportation authorities, the boosters asked if the People Mover could simply be removed and were told no because of federal rules preventing it, according to Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Kresge Foundation.

The group had also considered, but ultimately gave up on trying to find ways to better connect the two systems. The closest connection point is at their respective Grand Circus Park stations, which allows riders to access both systems but requires a trip across at least one city street.

With the QLINE in service, the People Mover can act as a downtown circulator for streetcar riders, but the QLINE is itself currently limited to a 3.3-mile route. The People Mover does offer another transit option around downtown for people with physical limitations, but anyone interested in connecting to Little Caesars Arena, Ford Field or Comerica Park would not be able to do so directly.

Officials with the Federal Transit Administration say there is actually no rule prohibiting the removal of the People Mover from service, although any remaining federal interest in the system’s assets would have to be repaid if it were. The system, which is owned by the Detroit Transportation Corp., an entity technically separate from the city, received a $110 million grant for People Mover construction in 1983.

The People Mover was built as a so-called demonstration project and paralleled a similar service in Miami, a more expansive and successful system called Metromover. Unlike Detroit, Miami currently charges no fare to ride the Metromover.

Contentious beginning

The People Mover project was started under the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority, the precursor to the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, which is the Detroit-area’s suburban bus system. Press reports detail a lengthy and troubled construction process that saw control over the People Mover project shift after costs ballooned from the $137 million estimate at the 1983 ground breaking.

Those cost issues forced officials to move funding from a planned light rail system on Woodward. When that light rail plan died in 1984, in part because of regional bickering, it also represented a major missed opportunity because the Gerald Ford administration had made commitments of $600 million toward the effort.

Bob Berg, who was press secretary to then-Mayor Coleman Young, said those developments help explain how the People Mover came to be in its present, limited state.

“The People Mover was never intended to be a standalone system. It was originally designed to be at the end of a light rail system,” Berg said. “The thought was, ‘we’re better off to have that than nothing.’”

Ken Coleman, a Detroit historian, said Young wanted a more expansive system than what the People Mover became, but it got caught up in regional rivalries that, among other things, delayed its launch. By the time the People Mover opened in 1987, the city was struggling and priorities were forced to shift from ideas like People Mover expansion to more “bread-and-butter” issues.

“The People Mover was a political football that was part of that whole debate about regional transportation and how it is to be carried out and what does it look like,” Coleman said.

Thirty years later, the region is still debating transportation as evidenced by the failed attempt last year to pass a millage to support the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan’s master plan.

People Mover expansion now appears unlikely, in part, because of the cost and perceptions about the system’s limitations, although connecting it to new venues would improve its usefulness. The system's old equipment also hampers the ability to modernize fare collections.

The RTA, which acts as an umbrella group to the People Mover and other transit agencies, had been involved in discussions led by People Mover staff to create a universal fare card for transit agencies, but without a clear path forward on regional transit, that project is on hold. There has also been talk that it would cost less to simply make the People Mover free rather than update equipment and collect fares.

The Free Press made numerous requests for an interview with Barbara Hansen, the system’s general manager, but she was not made available. The Detroit Transportation Corp. has 120 employees, including about 35 Transit Police officers assigned to DDOT and the QLINE, according to a staff statement.

The Free Press reached out to Mayor Mike Duggan’s office to find out how the mayor views the People Mover and its future.

In response, Mark De la Vergne, the city’s chief mobility officer, said the city is working with downtown stakeholders to look at all mobility options in the area and work on ways to support growth in the area.

“The People Mover provides a valuable service to circulating people around downtown and there are no plans to make any changes to the current service,” De la Vergne said.

Assuming the Joe is demolished as expected, the city said it does not yet know how that would affect the Joe Louis Arena People Mover station or the infrastructure around it.

“This will all be determined as demolition contractors are engaged. Our hope is to minimize disruptions to the system, but our priorities always will be the safety of our customers first, followed by considerations of convenience,” De la Vergne said.

The cost for demolition is expected to be in the millions of dollars, although that has not yet been settled. The city will need to apply to the state for funding.

Jed Howbert, the mayor's group executive for planning, housing and development, said “access to the state funds is contingent upon having a financing-ready development lined up which is not yet the case for this site. The city is exploring its available funding options at this time to allow it to proceed with demolition as we work on a parallel track on the plans for redevelopment of the (arena) site."

Howbert noted that "the exact nature of the new development for that site has not yet been determined."

He said the city's planning department is working to "ensure that any new development is consistent with its vision for the city's waterfront and that any new development integrate well with the existing waterfront and the city surrounding it.”

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.

