The Detroit People Mover could one day leave its downtown loop. A final plan for the system, released in August by the Detroit Transportation Corporation, names three possible new routes: west to Corktown and Michigan Central, north to the stadiums and Eastern Market, and along the west riverfront.
None of them has funding or a schedule yet. Still, the plan lays out the first step, and the state is paying for it. The Michigan Department of Transportation has awarded the transportation corporation money for an alternatives analysis, the study that would pick one route, the stations, the type of train and a way to pay for it.
The three routes on the table
First, the Corktown route would run out Michigan Avenue to Michigan Central, where the city and state are planning a new transit hub. Second, a route would head past Comerica Park and Ford Field into Eastern Market. Third, a line would follow the west riverfront to Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park and the proposed Detroit City FC stadium, with room to push farther west into Southwest Detroit.
An $800,000 MDOT grant paid for the plan, formally the Detroit People Mover System Plan & Downtown Mobility Study. The work took about a year and a half. It groups its ideas into three stages: basic fixes, a “system refresh” with new vehicles, and a long-term “re-envisioning” that includes the new routes. Meanwhile, for the new routes, it points to federal transit money and public-private partnerships as possible ways to pay.
What comes first
Before any new track, the plan puts the focus on making the existing 2.9-mile loop easier to find and use. That means better signs and station entrances. It also means easier transfers to buses at the Rosa Parks Transit Center and to the QLine. In addition, the plan looks at running trains in both directions instead of one way around the loop.
The system also needs new trains. The system runs an aging fleet, and the plan calls for choosing a vehicle that could run on both the existing guideway and any extension. The Detroit Transportation Corporation estimates the analysis for a first expansion would take one to five years.
Riders are coming back
The People Mover carried more than 1 million rides in both 2024 and 2025, according to the plan, reaching 82 percent of its pre-pandemic ridership with help from free fares. Times Square, Michigan Avenue, Fort/Cass and Grand Circus Park stations now top their pre-pandemic numbers.
Planners built the loop in the 1980s as the downtown piece of a larger regional system. However, the rest of that system never came. The new plan is the most detailed look yet at how far it could go. You can read the full report at thepeoplemover.com.