SEMTA Commuter Rail, also known as the Silver Streak, was a

commuter train Commuter rail or suburban rail is a passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Commuter rail systems can use locomotive-hauled tr ...

operated by the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) and the

Grand Trunk Western Railroad The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company was an American subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway, later of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad ha ...

between

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

and

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, Pontiac is part of the Metro Detroit, Detroit metropolitan area, and is vari ...

. It began in 1974 when SEMTA assumed control of the Grand Trunk's existing commuter trains over the route. SEMTA discontinued operations in 1983.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

began offering intercity service between Detroit and Pontiac in 1994 as part of its Michigan Services.

History

Grand Trunk

Passenger rail service between Detroit and Pontiac dated back to 1843 with the completion of the

Detroit and Pontiac Railroad The Detroit and Pontiac Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in the Michigan, state of Michigan during the mid-nineteenth century. It was the sixth railroad to receive a charter from Michigan, then a U.S. territory, territory, and the sec ...

, the second

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

(after the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad) to operate trains in the state of Michigan. The

, a subsidiary of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

, began offering commuter service on August 1, 1931. In 1968 the Grand Trunk operated six daily commuter trains (three round-trips) between the two cities. Average daily ridership was 2,812. By 1971 the Grand Trunk estimated yearly losses at $241,626, leading it to contemplate increasing fares or canceling the trains altogether. Both options would require the approval of the Michigan Public Service Commission. The coming of

and end of most private-sector intercity passenger service was then three weeks away but commuter trains were considered separate entities and remained in private operation after May 1, 1971.

SEMTA

The

Michigan Legislature The Michigan Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of the Senate (the upper chamber) and the House of Representatives (the lower chamber). Article IV of the Michigan Con ...

passed the Metropolitan Transportation Authorities Act of 1967, which included the creation of Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA). SEMTA was charged to take over the ownership and operations of the fractured regional transit systems in Wayne,

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

, Macomb, Washtenaw, St. Clair, and

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

counties, including the city of Detroit. On January 2, 1974, SEMTA began subsidizing one-third of the losses of the commuter trains This subsidy increased to two-thirds in 1977, with SEMTA formally acquiring the rolling stock and taking full responsibility for losses in 1978. In 1975 service consisted of three

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

trips between Pontiac and Detroit, supplemented by a single evening rush hour trip from Detroit to

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor (M-1 (Michigan highway), M-1). As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 censu ...

. The Birmingham train ended in spring 1976. Average train capacity in 1979 stood at 250 passengers. SEMTA operated a pair of special trains in 1982 for

Super Bowl XVI Super Bowl XVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

, running from the newly completed

Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center, commonly known as the RenCen, is a complex of seven connected skyscrapers in downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located on the Detroit International Riverfront, the RenCen is owned and used by General Motors ...

to Pontiac, near the

Pontiac Silverdome The Pontiac Silverdome (also known as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, the fi ...

. One carried the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

production crew; the other was chartered by a "private tour group". In 1981 daily ridership stood at 3,000. SEMTA's April 1983 timetable featured a stylized NYC Hudson locomotive on its cover and it continued to operate three weekday rush-hour round-trips, but all was not well. By the fall of 1983 SEMTA faced a $16 million budget shortfall and aging equipment. SEMTA estimated the cost of operating the commuter train at $1 million per year. Unable to secure funding for the train from local communities, SEMTA decided to discontinue the trains amid other cutbacks. The last train ran on October 17, 1983. SEMTA leased 22 passenger cars to the

Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...

for $320,000 per year. The five

EMD GP9 The EMD GP9 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Electro-Motive Diesel, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between 1954 and 1963. The GP9 succeeded the EMD GP7, GP7 as the second model of EMD's General Purpose (GP) line, inco ...

diesel locomotives were stored and later sold to the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

. A year after discontinuance SEMTA estimated start-up costs at $1–2 million.

Expansion politics

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s SEMTA attempted to expand its commuter rail network as part of an integrated regional transit plan. These efforts failed because of funding problems and political disagreement. In 1974 the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) and SEMTA rolled out a transit plan for rapid transit, bus rapid transit, people movers, and improved commuter rail. It included improvements for existing services on the Grand Trunk route to Pontiac and the

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

route to Ann Arbor, but not the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

(C&O) route via

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

. The plan would cost $6.2 billion. SEMTA unveiled a smaller plan in 1977 for $1.2 billion in transit projects, to be partially funded by the federal government. This plan included two

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

lines, three bus rapid transit lines, the

Detroit People Mover The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a Elevated railway, elevated People mover, automated people mover system in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States. The system operates in a one-way loop on a single track encircling downtown Detroit, using ...

, and upgrades to existing bus routes. For commuter rail SEMTA allocated $42 million, both for the existing Pontiac route and to create service from Detroit to Ann Arbor and Port Huron, but not Plymouth. The system would total . In 1979 the

Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interst ...

commissioned a $350,000 feasibility study for the revival of passenger service over the C&O between Detroit and

Lansing Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...

, the state capital. In 1947 the C&O's famed '' Pere Marquettes'' covered the distance in an hour and a half. The study included commuter rail service to Plymouth, a distance of . SEMTA, as in 1974, was non-committal, believing the C&O route "too congested" with freight traffic and preferring to establish service through Wayne County to Ann Arbor over the former Penn Central route, which was now owned by

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

. It was anticipated at that time that SEMTA would assume operation of the existing Ann Arbor commuter service, then operated by Amtrak, by 1984. In 1981 SEMTA formally proposed a Detroit–Ann Arbor commuter service, operating over the Conrail route. This route already saw three

intercity trains per day, plus the Amtrak-operated Detroit–Ann Arbor '' Michigan Executive'' commuter train, like SEMTA a holdover from private operation. SEMTA proposed Conrail would operate the service under contract, with a minimum of eight round-trips per day. The Detroit terminus would be a new station near

Joe Louis Arena Joe Louis Arena was an arena in Downtown Detroit. Completed in 1979 at a cost of US$57 million as a replacement for Olympia Stadium, it sat adjacent to Cobo Center on the bank of the Detroit River and was accessible by the Joe Louis Arena ...

Amtrak revival

Passenger rail service resumed over the Grand Trunk on May 5, 1994, when

extended the Chicago–Detroit trains '' Twilight Limited'' and ''

Wolverine The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...

'' to Pontiac. With this change service began at a new station in Detroit's New Center, near the old commuter stop at Milwaukee Junction. In Pontiac Amtrak used the

Pontiac Transportation Center The Pontiac Transportation Center is an Intermodal passenger transport, intermodal terminal station located in Pontiac, Michigan that is served by Amtrak's Michigan Services ''Wolverine (train), Wolverine''. The transportation center is also se ...

, originally constructed for the SEMTA commuter service but which had opened just six months prior to discontinuance.

Route

SEMTA operated a single line from Detroit to Pontiac, running parallel to

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

. In Detroit trains used a small station at St. Antoine and Franklin near site of Brush Street Station, which was demolished in 1973 to make way for the

(later SEMTA timetables simply indicated "Renaissance Center" as the Detroit terminus). Outbound stops included Milwaukee Junction, the Chrysler Center in Highland Park, Ferndale at 9 Mile Road, Royal Oak (at 11 Mile Road and at 12 Mile Road),

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is surrounded on most sides by Bloomfi ...

(at Charing Cross Road and at Long Lake Road), and finally Pontiac. The total distance was .

Equipment

SEMTA owned a pool of 23 steam-heated passenger coaches; 12 of these were originally from the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

(PRR) and the other 11 from the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

. Refit for commuter service each coach could seat 92. In May 1976 SEMTA acquired the old PRR '' Keystone'' trainset (the so-called "tubular train") from Amtrak for $80,000 but this equipment did not enter service. The Grand Trunk employed both

and

EMD GP18 The EMD GP18 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division between December 1959 and November 1963. Power was provided by a 16-567D1 16-cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimen ...

locomotives for motive power.