DETROIT, MI -- It only goes in one, circular direction downtown, it is inefficient and it is bleeding money, critics say.

But the Detroit People Mover, now 25 years young, serves its purpose, its riders insisted on Saturday night.

For Eileene Farrier, a retired resident of downtown Detroit, the People Mover is indispensable.

"It's the only way I travel down here," she said.

She has one of the $10 monthly passes, and said it paid for itself long ago.

"Most people like it," she said. "Some young people are afraid of it, but I tell them, 'If you can ride a rollercoaster, you can ride this.'"

According to a scathing editorial by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the People Mover is a rollercoaster – for the rich.

"The vast majority of the system's users are clearly suburbanites and out-of-town visitors, who pay only a 50 cent-per-ride fare that regularly covers less than 10 percent of the line's annual operating cost (and often less than 5 percent)," the non-partisan, free-market think tank said during the People Mover's last anniversary in 2007.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has been a frequent critic of the city's single-track, elevated train. In 2011, it cited a Federal Transit Administration report that Detroit taxpayers were subsidizing the less than 3-mile-long train circuit for $6.2 million, while the state of Michigan added another $4.3 million. Rider fares, previously 50 cents but recently raised to 75 cents, added just 7 percent to operating costs.

On Saturday, Jerome Smith was taking the People Mover from the Cobo Center

where he was attending a business convention to other places like the Renaissance Center and Michigan Avenue, where his hotel was.

"It's taken me where I need to go," he shrugged, adding that he had walked some of those routes as well. The Philadelphia native chuckled at the comparison to his own city's train system. Philadelphia's below-and-above ground city train goes for 25 miles and has 50 stations. It connects to a regional train line that spans 280 miles.

"This is real small," Smith said of the 13-station People Mover. "It's like a toy."

The Detroit People Mover can be dated back to 1966, when the Urban Mass Transportation Administration was created. For nearly a decade, the UMTA did nothing, so, under pressure to justify its existence, it launched a nationwide competition in 1975 to develop a "Downtown People Mover Program," with federal funds backing up successful proposals.

Detroit, Miami and Baltimore won, but only Detroit and Baltimore moved forward with plans.

Detroit's plans included a regional line that was estimated to carry some 67,000 riders a day. Those plans were scaled back, and the People Mover didn't open to the public until 1987. About 11,000 riders used it each day that year.

In 2011, about 6,300 riders took the people mover around Detroit's Central Business District, for an annual ridership of 2.3 million, up from 2.2 million passengers in 2010.

Detroit resident Felicia Goss was riding the train from downtown near Hart Plaza to the Greektown Casino parking garage with her boyfriend on Saturday night.

"It's decent," she said of her ride. "It's good for the people who work downtown, live downtown."

Her boyfriend agreed.

"It's not Chicago, it's not New York City, but you can see the city, you can see the heritage," he said.

Chicago's train system has eight lines and 145 stations on its 224-mile circuit. New York City's dirty but efficient subway system has 34 lines, 468 stations and 842 miles of track.

Of course, Chicago's city proper has 2.7 million people, New York City has 8.2 million people, and Detroit's well-documented population loss puts the city at 715,000 citizens.

Transportation advocates argue that the Detroit People Mover could be a catalyst for revitalizing the city and its population. Groups like Transportation Riders United suggest bringing it back to its original plans of connecting to a wider rail system.

There have been ongoing efforts to build a streetcar line along Woodward Avenue from Congress Street to New Center, with 11 stops. Known as the Woodward Avenue Light Rail Transit Project, the $137-million, 3.3-mile streetcar line is said to have private backing of about $90 million, but has hit roadblocks in terms of federal funds.

A public event to discuss the project's future is being held Tuesday, Aug. 21 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Michigan State University's Detroit Center, hosted by the state Department of Transportation, the Federal Transit Administration and the Michigan Council of Governments.

On Saturday night, not all of the handful of passengers shuffling in and out of the People Mover had glowing reviews for it, as it completed its circuit in no more than 45 minutes.

"Squeaky wheels," Dan Spechok said loudly. He was riding with his girlfriend to Greektown Casino. "Listen to those squeaky wheels, man. Can't they do anything about that?"

Othwerwsie, he said, he "absolutely" thought the People Mover was worth his while. "It just depends on where you're going," he said.

Diane Godfrey, a bartender just steps from the train's stop at Greektown, said a lot of her customers park in the free parking garage at the nearby casino and then use it for events at the Joe Louis Arena.

Corporate management would not allow Godfrey to disclose which bar she works at.

Godfrey said that it is typically too far of a walk for most people to Comerica Park and

Ford Field, or at least less convenient than taking a car, so no one takes the People Mover to events at those stadiums, let alone shows at nearby Fox Theatre.

"But no, it's good. It gets you from point A to point B," she said.

Her colleague, Toussaint Brock said, "People from big cities see it and say, 'You call that a train?' But it serves its purpose."

Godfery agreed.

"For 75 cents? I mean you can't beat it," she said.