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History of railroads in Michigan

January 01, 1970

Railroads have been vital in the history of the population and trade of rough and finished goods in the state of Michigan. While some coastal settlements had previously existed, the population, commercial, and industrial growth of the state further bloomed with the establishment of the railroad.

The Michigan railroad network, c. 1876.

The state's proximity to Ontario, Canada, aided the transport of goods in a smooth east–west trajectory from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan toward Montreal and Quebec.

Major railroads in the state, prior to 20th century consolidations, had been the Michigan Central Railroad and the New York Central Railroad.

The system has been reduced from more than 9,000 route miles in the beginning of the 20th century to around 3,600 route miles at the beginning of the 21st century. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) owns 665 miles of these, based on the State Transportation Preservation Act of 1976.[1] 

Chronology edit

The first roads edit

 
Artist's depiction of an early Erie & Kalamazoo train.

The history of railroading in Michigan began in 1830, seven years before the territory became a state, with the chartering of the Pontiac and Detroit Railway. This was the first such charter granted in the Northwest Territory, and occurred the same year the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began operation. Joining the P&D in 1832 was the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad, which aimed to cross the entire Lower Peninsula and establish a connection with Lake Michigan on the St. Joseph River. Neither of these projects had made any progress when in 1833 the Michigan Territorial Council granted a charter to yet another company, the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad.[2]

The Erie & Kalamazoo was to connect Port Lawrence (now Toledo, Ohio) on Lake Erie to some point on the Kalamazoo River, which flows into Lake Michigan. By November 2, 1836, the E&K had completed a 32.8-mile (52.8 km) line from Port Lawrence northeast to Adrian, Michigan, in Lenawee County. Horse teams drew a solitary car along the line,[1] the first railroad trip undertaken west of the state of New York. The first steam locomotives operated in early 1837, with an average speed of 10 miles per hour (16 km/h).[3][4]

Further north, the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad had completed a 12.3-mile (19.8 km) line from Detroit north to Royal Oak. Operations began in 1838 but would be horse-drawn until the following year. After financial difficulties and government entanglements the railroad reached Pontiac in 1843, for a total length of 26.6 miles (42.8 km).[5]

The state fiasco edit

 
Announcement from 1842 concerning the "Southern" line, which then traveled no further west than Adrian. See here for the entire announcement.

By 1837, Michigan had the beginnings of a railroad network, but one with which both the government and the people were dissatisfied. In the first seven years of railroading in Michigan (1830–1837), the Michigan Territorial Council approved charters for 23 private railroad companies. Of these, only five completed and opened lines, and then for a total in-state (excluding Ohio) length of only 61.1 miles (98.3 km).[note 1] The two main lines, the Erie & Kalamazoo (Toledo–Adrian) and the Detroit & Pontiac (Detroit–Royal Oak) reflected the needs of the local business interests which built them and were inadequate from the perspective of the newly organized state government. Additionally, the settlement of the Toledo War placed Toledo in Ohio, which meant that the one railroad-connected port on Lake Erie lay in a different state.[7] Therefore, using the state of New York's construction of the Erie Canal as a model, Michigan embarked on an ambitious project to construct three railroad lines across the state.

Michigan's project was not unusual at the time: her neighbors Illinois, Indiana and Ohio all had either government-funded building programs or generous assistance packages for private companies. Michigan lawmakers proposed to build three lines from the east side of the state to locations on Lake Michigan:

The Central line would connect with the D&P in Detroit, while the Southern line would connect with the E&K near Adrian. The government, under the leadership of Governor Stevens T. Mason, would finance the whole project through a US$5 million loan. A report prepared by a legislative committee predicted that construction of all three lines would take no more than five years, that revenues earned from the partially completed lines would be sufficient to satisfy interest payments during that period, and that once all three railroads were in full operation revenues earned would permit the state to pay off the loan in 20 years and turn a substantial profit. These assumptions proved to be wildly optimistic, leading to what one historian termed a "fiasco" and another an "embarrassment."[9][10]

Michigan's attempt to secure the loan coincided with the Panic of 1837: banks failed, sales of land dried up, and money was hard to obtain. The construction of the lines was bedeviled by competition between local interests, all of whom wanted to benefit from the state project. An investigation into the management of the project found instances of graft and extravagance and a general inefficiency. At the end of 1845 the state had spent some US$4 million; the "Southern" line had reached Hillsdale and the "Central" Battle Creek, while the "Northern" still existed on paper only. Altogether only 187.9 miles (302.4 km) of a projected 600 miles (970 km)-plus were in operation, and the state's finances were in chaos. In 1846 the legislature sold both the "Southern" and "Central" lines to private investors at a loss; out of the ruins of the state's projects arose the Michigan Southern Railroad and Michigan Central Railroad. Another outcome was Michigan's revised constitution of 1850, which explicitly forbade direct investment in or construction of "any work of internal improvement."[11][10][5]

Across the Lower Peninsula edit

Among other requirements, that state in its sale of the "Central" and "Southern" lines stipulated that both companies complete their lines to points on the coast of Lake Michigan. The Michigan Central then stood at Kalamazoo, on the Kalamazoo River, while the Michigan Southern stood at Hillsdale, far to the east. Racing ahead of the legislature's requirement, both companies sensed the growing importance of Chicago, Illinois, a port city on the southwest coast of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Chicago River, which flowed into the Mississippi. The Central turned its line south toward New Buffalo, a small town close to the Michigan/Indiana border, while the Southern, after some negotiating with the state, bypassed Lake Michigan altogether and dropped south into Indiana, passing through Sturgis and on into South Bend, Indiana. On February 20, 1852, the Southern Michigan line from Toledo became the first Michigan company to run trains into Chicago,[1]  via an operating agreement with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. The Central followed suit three months later, via its own arrangement with the Illinois Central Railroad.[12] In the same year, the last low quality and hazardous strap rails were removed on Michigan state railroads.[1] 1856,  the Detroit - Toledo line was completed by Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Railroad and later leased to Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad.[1] The Detroit - Grand Haven line via Owosso, Ionia and Grand Rapids was completed by Detroit & Milqukee Railroad in 1858,[1]

Capitalizing on Jackson's central location, Michigan Central Railroad added the growing community as its eastern terminus in 1841. With the addition of the railroad, Jackson began its development as an important rail center. By 1871 Jackson was recognized as an important rail center with six different railroads passing through the city. By 1910, Jackson was home to switching and repair headquarters for 10 railroads.

 
Map from 1850 of the Michigan Southern and connecting railroads. The Michigan Central is also shown, with its then-western terminus of New Buffalo. The Detroit & Pontiac, soon to become the Detroit & Milwaukee, is not shown.

The third line to cross the Lower Peninsula grew out of the Detroit & Pontiac (D&P), which had emerged from bankruptcy in 1849 with a new set of backers and fresh capital. Under the new name of the Detroit & Milwaukee (D&M), the railroad pushed across the central part of the peninsula, eventually reaching Grand Haven on the shores of Lake Michigan on November 22, 1858. From Detroit through Grand Rapids to Grand Haven the line stretched 186 miles (299 km). While similar to the projected northern line, it ignored St. Clair in favor of a Detroit terminus.[13]

Winfield Scott Gerrish is credited with revolutionizing lumbering in Michigan by building a seven-mile-long logging railroad from Lake George to the Muskegon River in Clare County in 1877.[14]

Land grants and mining roads edit

The third great burst in railroad activity in the state of Michigan was fueled by the institution of a land grant program by the federal government. Under an act of 1856 and successive acts Michigan had in its gift over 5,000,000 acres (20,000 km2) of land which could be given to railroads (which would then re-sell these lands for a profit) in exchange for constructing certain routes. The designated routes were removed from the existing railway network, which with minor exceptions criss-crossed the southern Lower Peninsula.[15]

The proposed lines would cover several gaps in Michigan's growing railroad network: fully half the land grants would go to railroads in the Upper Peninsula, where substantial mineral resources had been discovered, while two routes in the Lower Peninsula would run north–south, bisecting the existing cross-state routes.[16]

Even with the land grants, railroad construction remained a difficult prospect. The availability of the grants did not guarantee financial success; John Murray Forbes, a major backer of the Michigan Central, considered them irrelevant compared to the intelligence of the railroad's management.[17] The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad (GR&I) faced serious difficulties in raising capital, and it was only through the intervention of the Pennsylvania Railroad (via its subsidiary the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway) that the GR&I finished enough of its planned route to save its charter. Even then, the railroad entered foreclosure in 1895. The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) initially eschewed its land grants and built south from East Saginaw to link up with the Detroit & Milwaukee, over whose lines it ran trains into Detroit. The first company to attempt the Amboy–Traverse Bay line, the Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay Railroad, failed after completing a short line between Lansing and Owosso, and was eventually split between the LS&MS and the Michigan Central.[18]

In the sparsely-populated Upper Peninsula railroad development revolved around the need to transport copper and iron ore from the resource-rich mountain ranges in the western part of the state to Chicago, Illinois, either through the state of Wisconsin or on the broad highway of Lake Michigan. The first railroad in the UP, the Iron Mountain Railroad, preceded the land grants and was built by private funds between 1851 and 1857. Its Negaunee- Marquette line was completed by August 1857.[1] With the assistance of land grants, traffic in the hills came to be dominated by three companies whose primary base was out of state: the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road"). In the east, the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad completed a line from Marquette to St. Ignace on the north side of the Straits of Mackinac, nominally linking the state's two peninsulas.[19]

Chronology of rail line development edit

1867 the Bay City & East Saginaw Railroad started regular intercity services between the namesake cities from adjacent counties. 1869 the first passenger train arrived in Muskegon from Ferrysburg (next to Grand Haven).[1] In 1872 railroad reached also Traverse City up north from Walton Junction.[1] In 1874, the east-west line from Flint to Ludington was completed.[1] 1878 both freight and passenger rail service started on the line between Toledo and Ann Arbor.[1] 1880 summer passenger services started to resorts near Petoskey.[1] 1881 came the opening of a direct line from Detroit to St. Louis and Kansas City via Montpelier (Ohio) to the south and the operation of both a railroad to Mackinac and a car ferry service at the Straits of Mackinac up north.[1] 

1887 the international railroad bridge across the St. Mary's River at Sault Ste. Marie was opened.[1] A year later, the wooden car ferry St. Ignace provided the missing rail link between Michigan's two peninsulas.[1] Another year later, in 1889, first luxury train services commenced on the Soo Line between Minneapolis and Montreal via Sault Ste. Marie.[1] In 1889, Frankfort was connected to Toledo in a diagonal line through Michigan by the Toledo, Ann Arbort & North Michigan Railroad.[1]

In 1891, the St. Clair Tunnel between Port Huran and Sarnia (Canada) was opened by the Grand Trunk system.[1] It was the world's first international submarine tunnel and formed the core of the world's longest route under single management from Eastern Canada to Chicago.[1] 1892 the world's first railroad ferry service in the world across open water opened from Elberta to Kewaunee, Wisconsin.[1]

1904, Detroit & Mackinac started their service between Bay City and Cheboygan.[1] In 1910, after four years of construction, the Detroit to Windsor railroad tunnel was opened using electric locomotives.[1] 1907, the Keweenaw Central Railroad reached Mandan in the northernmost part of the Upper Peninsula.[1] In 1917 and 1918, the U.S. Railroad Administration took over the operation of the railroads as a wartime measure and incorporated forcefully five boats of Pete Marquette, four of Ann Arbor Railroad and two of The Grand Western Railroad to its Lake Michigan Car Ferry Association.[1] The Detroit line of Pennsylvania Railroad via Carleton was in 1920 the last new main line route built by a major railroad in Michigan, creating a link to the metropolitan centers on the East Coast.[1] In 1933, fast through-passenger trains (4hours, 45 minutes) from Detroit to Chicago were inaugurated by The Pennsylvania and Wabash railroads.[1] In 1946 Detroit & Mackinac Railway was the first in the United States to switch to an all-diesel, line-haul railroad.[1] In 1959, Michigan saw as an innovation in freight railroads the first roadrailer servicing between Grand Rapids and Traverse City.[1]

Boom and bust edit

See also: People v. Salem
 
By the beginning of the 20th century Michigan's railroad network covered much of the central and southern Lower Peninsula.

The decades after the Civil War witnessed a massive expansion of Michigan's railroad network: in 1865 the state possessed roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of track; by 1890 it had 9,000 miles (14,000 km). These new lines were built by private companies and financed by a mixture of borrowed money, stock sales and, for a time, aid from local governments. During what one historian called "southern Michigan's railroad mania"[20] many lines were built without a true appreciation of potential profitability, resulting in a financial landscape littered with bankruptcies and companies in receivership.

Railroads in Michigan today edit

 
An Amtrak Wolverine pulls into Kalamazoo. The tracks were part of the Michigan Central's Detroit—Chicago main line.
See also: List of Michigan railroads

After a record high railroad mileage around the year 1910, the number of passenger railroad lines and services have been significantly reduced in Michigan in the course of the following century, also many freight railroad tracks have been removed and discontinues in remote areas. Some small portions of old track has been transformed to touristic use, others for bike trails. The Detroit passenger rail station has been moved from the central business district to the New Center. The connection to Canada is secured not via boat anymore, but through rail tunnels and bridges. 

On the side of operators, a concentration process has established one main passenger operator (Amtrak) and an important role for a small number of big freight operators. Michigan is served by four Class I railroads: the Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, CSX Transportation, and Norfolk Southern Railway. These are augmented by several dozen short line railroads. The vast majority of rail service in Michigan is devoted to freight.[21]

Intercity passenger service edit

See also: Michigan Services

There is Amtrak passenger rail service in the state, connecting the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Flint, and Port Huron to Chicago, Illinois. The three routes taken together carried 664,284 passengers for revenues of $20.3 million during fiscal year 2005–2006, a record.[22] The Pere Marquette and Blue Water services received funding from the State of Michigan already for a long time. Starting from 2014, the state funding was extended to the Wolverine services as well.

The Detroit-Chicago corridor has been designated by the Federal Railroad Administration as a high-speed rail corridor.[23] A 97-mile (156 km) stretch along the route of Blue Water and Wolverine from Porter, Indiana to Kalamazoo, Michigan is the longest segment of track owned by Amtrak outside of the Northeast Corridor.[23] Amtrak began incremental speed increases along this stretch in January 2002. By 2012, trains were regularly running at the planned top speed of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) between Porter and Kalamazoo.[23][24][25]

Commuter service edit

See also: WALLY (commuter rail) and SEMCOG Commuter Rail

Michigan has not had commuter rail service since 1984, when Amtrak discontinued the Michigan Executive, which ran between Ann Arbor and Detroit. SEMTA had discontinued the Grand Trunk Western's old Pontiac–Detroit service the year before.[26]

There are currently two new proposed systems under consideration. WALLY, which is backed by the Great Lakes Central Railroad and a coalition of Washtenaw County agencies and businesses, would provide daily service between Ann Arbor and Howell. The other, a proposed project by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, would provide daily service between Detroit and Ann Arbor with stops in Ypsilanti, Detroit Metro Airport, and Dearborn. Recent discussions have included possible extension of the project to Jackson.[27]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad, the River Raisin and Lake Erie Railroad, the Shelby and Detroit Railroad and the Palmyra and Jacksonburgh Railroad.[6][5]

Endnotes edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab "Michigan's Railroad History 1825 - 2014" (PDF). Michigan Department of Transportation. 2014-10-13. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  2. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 14–18
  3. ^ Meints 2005, pp. 235–237
  4. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 20–22
  5. ^ a b c Meints 2005, pp. 3–6
  6. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 31–32
  7. ^ Dunbar 1969, p. 26
  8. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 30, 33
  9. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 33–35
  10. ^ a b Meints 1992, p. 4
  11. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 37–51
  12. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 59–73
  13. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 75–78
  14. ^ The Forests of Michigan. University of Michigan Press. 2003. p. 143. ISBN 0472068164. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  15. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 105–108
  16. ^ Dunbar 1969, p. 110
  17. ^ Cochran 1950, pp. 55–56
  18. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 110–113
  19. ^ Dunbar 1969, pp. 116–119
  20. ^ Dunbar 1969, p. 127
  21. ^ "Railroads Operating in Michigan" (PDF). Michigan Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
  22. ^ "MDOT renews Amtrak contract, notes record ridership on Michigan routes". Michigan Department of Transportation. November 16, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
  23. ^ a b c "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2005" (PDF). State of Michigan. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  24. ^ "Michigan: Amtrak taking service to new speeds". WNDU-TV. February 7, 2002. Archived from the original on 2004-11-12. Retrieved 2006-11-01.
  25. ^ Lovitt, Rob (October 24, 2012). "High-speed rail efforts gain momentum around country". NBC News. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
  26. ^ . Transportation Riders United. Archived from the original on 2010-07-06. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
  27. ^ "Jackson officials back fast commuter train". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2008-08-19. [dead link]

References edit

  • Cochran, Thomas C. (1950). "North American Railroads: Land Grants and Railroad Entrepreneurship". The Journal of Economic History. 10 (Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History): 53–67. doi:10.1017/S0022050700065347.
  • Dunbar, Willis F. (1969). All Aboard! A History of Railroads in Michigan. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans. OCLC 54650.
  • Farmer, Silas (1890). History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan. S. Farmer & Co.
  • Grant, H. Roger and Charles W. Bohi (1988). The Country Railroad Station in America. Sioux Falls, South Dakota: The Center for Western Studies, Augustana College. ISBN 0-931170-41-9.
  • Meints, Graydon M. (1992). Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87013-318-3.
  • Meints, Graydon M. (2005). Michigan Railroad Lines. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87013-693-1.

Further reading edit

External links edit

January 01, 1970
history, railroads, michigan, railroads, have, been, vital, history, population, trade, rough, finished, goods, state, michigan, while, some, coastal, settlements, previously, existed, population, commercial, industrial, growth, state, further, bloomed, with, . Railroads have been vital in the history of the population and trade of rough and finished goods in the state of Michigan While some coastal settlements had previously existed the population commercial and industrial growth of the state further bloomed with the establishment of the railroad The Michigan railroad network c 1876 The state s proximity to Ontario Canada aided the transport of goods in a smooth east west trajectory from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan toward Montreal and Quebec Major railroads in the state prior to 20th century consolidations had been the Michigan Central Railroad and the New York Central Railroad The system has been reduced from more than 9 000 route miles in the beginning of the 20th century to around 3 600 route miles at the beginning of the 21st century The Michigan Department of Transportation MDOT owns 665 miles of these based on the State Transportation Preservation Act of 1976 1 Contents 1 Chronology 1 1 The first roads 1 2 The state fiasco 1 3 Across the Lower Peninsula 1 4 Land grants and mining roads 1 5 Chronology of rail line development 1 6 Boom and bust 2 Railroads in Michigan today 2 1 Intercity passenger service 2 2 Commuter service 3 See also 4 Notes 5 Endnotes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksChronology editThe first roads edit nbsp Artist s depiction of an early Erie amp Kalamazoo train The history of railroading in Michigan began in 1830 seven years before the territory became a state with the chartering of the Pontiac and Detroit Railway This was the first such charter granted in the Northwest Territory and occurred the same year the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began operation Joining the P amp D in 1832 was the Detroit and St Joseph Railroad which aimed to cross the entire Lower Peninsula and establish a connection with Lake Michigan on the St Joseph River Neither of these projects had made any progress when in 1833 the Michigan Territorial Council granted a charter to yet another company the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad 2 The Erie amp Kalamazoo was to connect Port Lawrence now Toledo Ohio on Lake Erie to some point on the Kalamazoo River which flows into Lake Michigan By November 2 1836 the E amp K had completed a 32 8 mile 52 8 km line from Port Lawrence northeast to Adrian Michigan in Lenawee County Horse teams drew a solitary car along the line 1 the first railroad trip undertaken west of the state of New York The first steam locomotives operated in early 1837 with an average speed of 10 miles per hour 16 km h 3 4 Further north the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad had completed a 12 3 mile 19 8 km line from Detroit north to Royal Oak Operations began in 1838 but would be horse drawn until the following year After financial difficulties and government entanglements the railroad reached Pontiac in 1843 for a total length of 26 6 miles 42 8 km 5 The state fiasco edit nbsp Announcement from 1842 concerning the Southern line which then traveled no further west than Adrian See here for the entire announcement By 1837 Michigan had the beginnings of a railroad network but one with which both the government and the people were dissatisfied In the first seven years of railroading in Michigan 1830 1837 the Michigan Territorial Council approved charters for 23 private railroad companies Of these only five completed and opened lines and then for a total in state excluding Ohio length of only 61 1 miles 98 3 km note 1 The two main lines the Erie amp Kalamazoo Toledo Adrian and the Detroit amp Pontiac Detroit Royal Oak reflected the needs of the local business interests which built them and were inadequate from the perspective of the newly organized state government Additionally the settlement of the Toledo War placed Toledo in Ohio which meant that the one railroad connected port on Lake Erie lay in a different state 7 Therefore using the state of New York s construction of the Erie Canal as a model Michigan embarked on an ambitious project to construct three railroad lines across the state Michigan s project was not unusual at the time her neighbors Illinois Indiana and Ohio all had either government funded building programs or generous assistance packages for private companies Michigan lawmakers proposed to build three lines from the east side of the state to locations on Lake Michigan The Northern line St Clair on the St Clair River which separates Michigan from the Canadian province of Ontario to Grand Haven The Central line Detroit to St Joseph The Southern line Monroe on Lake Erie to New Buffalo 8 The Central line would connect with the D amp P in Detroit while the Southern line would connect with the E amp K near Adrian The government under the leadership of Governor Stevens T Mason would finance the whole project through a US 5 million loan A report prepared by a legislative committee predicted that construction of all three lines would take no more than five years that revenues earned from the partially completed lines would be sufficient to satisfy interest payments during that period and that once all three railroads were in full operation revenues earned would permit the state to pay off the loan in 20 years and turn a substantial profit These assumptions proved to be wildly optimistic leading to what one historian termed a fiasco and another an embarrassment 9 10 Michigan s attempt to secure the loan coincided with the Panic of 1837 banks failed sales of land dried up and money was hard to obtain The construction of the lines was bedeviled by competition between local interests all of whom wanted to benefit from the state project An investigation into the management of the project found instances of graft and extravagance and a general inefficiency At the end of 1845 the state had spent some US 4 million the Southern line had reached Hillsdale and the Central Battle Creek while the Northern still existed on paper only Altogether only 187 9 miles 302 4 km of a projected 600 miles 970 km plus were in operation and the state s finances were in chaos In 1846 the legislature sold both the Southern and Central lines to private investors at a loss out of the ruins of the state s projects arose the Michigan Southern Railroad and Michigan Central Railroad Another outcome was Michigan s revised constitution of 1850 which explicitly forbade direct investment in or construction of any work of internal improvement 11 10 5 Across the Lower Peninsula edit Among other requirements that state in its sale of the Central and Southern lines stipulated that both companies complete their lines to points on the coast of Lake Michigan The Michigan Central then stood at Kalamazoo on the Kalamazoo River while the Michigan Southern stood at Hillsdale far to the east Racing ahead of the legislature s requirement both companies sensed the growing importance of Chicago Illinois a port city on the southwest coast of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Chicago River which flowed into the Mississippi The Central turned its line south toward New Buffalo a small town close to the Michigan Indiana border while the Southern after some negotiating with the state bypassed Lake Michigan altogether and dropped south into Indiana passing through Sturgis and on into South Bend Indiana On February 20 1852 the Southern Michigan line from Toledo became the first Michigan company to run trains into Chicago 1 via an operating agreement with the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The Central followed suit three months later via its own arrangement with the Illinois Central Railroad 12 In the same year the last low quality and hazardous strap rails were removed on Michigan state railroads 1 1856 the Detroit Toledo line was completed by Detroit Monroe amp Toledo Railroad and later leased to Michigan Southern amp Northern Indiana Railroad 1 The Detroit Grand Haven line via Owosso Ionia and Grand Rapids was completed by Detroit amp Milqukee Railroad in 1858 1 Capitalizing on Jackson s central location Michigan Central Railroad added the growing community as its eastern terminus in 1841 With the addition of the railroad Jackson began its development as an important rail center By 1871 Jackson was recognized as an important rail center with six different railroads passing through the city By 1910 Jackson was home to switching and repair headquarters for 10 railroads nbsp Map from 1850 of the Michigan Southern and connecting railroads The Michigan Central is also shown with its then western terminus of New Buffalo The Detroit amp Pontiac soon to become the Detroit amp Milwaukee is not shown The third line to cross the Lower Peninsula grew out of the Detroit amp Pontiac D amp P which had emerged from bankruptcy in 1849 with a new set of backers and fresh capital Under the new name of the Detroit amp Milwaukee D amp M the railroad pushed across the central part of the peninsula eventually reaching Grand Haven on the shores of Lake Michigan on November 22 1858 From Detroit through Grand Rapids to Grand Haven the line stretched 186 miles 299 km While similar to the projected northern line it ignored St Clair in favor of a Detroit terminus 13 Winfield Scott Gerrish is credited with revolutionizing lumbering in Michigan by building a seven mile long logging railroad from Lake George to the Muskegon River in Clare County in 1877 14 Land grants and mining roads edit The third great burst in railroad activity in the state of Michigan was fueled by the institution of a land grant program by the federal government Under an act of 1856 and successive acts Michigan had in its gift over 5 000 000 acres 20 000 km2 of land which could be given to railroads which would then re sell these lands for a profit in exchange for constructing certain routes The designated routes were removed from the existing railway network which with minor exceptions criss crossed the southern Lower Peninsula 15 Location End points Railroad Notes Western Upper Peninsula Marquette Ontonagon Duluth South Shore and Atlantic Railway Western Upper Peninsula Ontonagon Wisconsin state line Chicago Milwaukee and St Paul Railway Western Upper Peninsula Marquette Little Bay de Noc Chicago and North Western Railway Lower Peninsula Fort Wayne Indiana Straits of Mackinac Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad Lower Peninsula Amboy Indiana Lansing Traverse Bay Michigan Central Railroad and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway LS amp MS took ownership Central Lower Peninsula Flint Grand Haven Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad Central Lower Peninsula Flint Pere Marquette Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad Pere Marquette is now Ludington The proposed lines would cover several gaps in Michigan s growing railroad network fully half the land grants would go to railroads in the Upper Peninsula where substantial mineral resources had been discovered while two routes in the Lower Peninsula would run north south bisecting the existing cross state routes 16 Even with the land grants railroad construction remained a difficult prospect The availability of the grants did not guarantee financial success John Murray Forbes a major backer of the Michigan Central considered them irrelevant compared to the intelligence of the railroad s management 17 The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad GR amp I faced serious difficulties in raising capital and it was only through the intervention of the Pennsylvania Railroad via its subsidiary the Pittsburgh Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway that the GR amp I finished enough of its planned route to save its charter Even then the railroad entered foreclosure in 1895 The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad F amp PM initially eschewed its land grants and built south from East Saginaw to link up with the Detroit amp Milwaukee over whose lines it ran trains into Detroit The first company to attempt the Amboy Traverse Bay line the Amboy Lansing and Traverse Bay Railroad failed after completing a short line between Lansing and Owosso and was eventually split between the LS amp MS and the Michigan Central 18 In the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula railroad development revolved around the need to transport copper and iron ore from the resource rich mountain ranges in the western part of the state to Chicago Illinois either through the state of Wisconsin or on the broad highway of Lake Michigan The first railroad in the UP the Iron Mountain Railroad preceded the land grants and was built by private funds between 1851 and 1857 Its Negaunee Marquette line was completed by August 1857 1 With the assistance of land grants traffic in the hills came to be dominated by three companies whose primary base was out of state the Duluth South Shore and Atlantic Railway the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company and the Chicago Milwaukee St Paul and Pacific Railroad the Milwaukee Road In the east the Detroit Mackinac and Marquette Railroad completed a line from Marquette to St Ignace on the north side of the Straits of Mackinac nominally linking the state s two peninsulas 19 Chronology of rail line development edit 1867 the Bay City amp East Saginaw Railroad started regular intercity services between the namesake cities from adjacent counties 1869 the first passenger train arrived in Muskegon from Ferrysburg next to Grand Haven 1 In 1872 railroad reached also Traverse City up north from Walton Junction 1 In 1874 the east west line from Flint to Ludington was completed 1 1878 both freight and passenger rail service started on the line between Toledo and Ann Arbor 1 1880 summer passenger services started to resorts near Petoskey 1 1881 came the opening of a direct line from Detroit to St Louis and Kansas City via Montpelier Ohio to the south and the operation of both a railroad to Mackinac and a car ferry service at the Straits of Mackinac up north 1 1887 the international railroad bridge across the St Mary s River at Sault Ste Marie was opened 1 A year later the wooden car ferry St Ignace provided the missing rail link between Michigan s two peninsulas 1 Another year later in 1889 first luxury train services commenced on the Soo Line between Minneapolis and Montreal via Sault Ste Marie 1 In 1889 Frankfort was connected to Toledo in a diagonal line through Michigan by the Toledo Ann Arbort amp North Michigan Railroad 1 In 1891 the St Clair Tunnel between Port Huran and Sarnia Canada was opened by the Grand Trunk system 1 It was the world s first international submarine tunnel and formed the core of the world s longest route under single management from Eastern Canada to Chicago 1 1892 the world s first railroad ferry service in the world across open water opened from Elberta to Kewaunee Wisconsin 1 1904 Detroit amp Mackinac started their service between Bay City and Cheboygan 1 In 1910 after four years of construction the Detroit to Windsor railroad tunnel was opened using electric locomotives 1 1907 the Keweenaw Central Railroad reached Mandan in the northernmost part of the Upper Peninsula 1 In 1917 and 1918 the U S Railroad Administration took over the operation of the railroads as a wartime measure and incorporated forcefully five boats of Pete Marquette four of Ann Arbor Railroad and two of The Grand Western Railroad to its Lake Michigan Car Ferry Association 1 The Detroit line of Pennsylvania Railroad via Carleton was in 1920 the last new main line route built by a major railroad in Michigan creating a link to the metropolitan centers on the East Coast 1 In 1933 fast through passenger trains 4hours 45 minutes from Detroit to Chicago were inaugurated by The Pennsylvania and Wabash railroads 1 In 1946 Detroit amp Mackinac Railway was the first in the United States to switch to an all diesel line haul railroad 1 In 1959 Michigan saw as an innovation in freight railroads the first roadrailer servicing between Grand Rapids and Traverse City 1 Boom and bust edit See also People v Salem nbsp By the beginning of the 20th century Michigan s railroad network covered much of the central and southern Lower Peninsula The decades after the Civil War witnessed a massive expansion of Michigan s railroad network in 1865 the state possessed roughly 1 000 miles 1 600 km of track by 1890 it had 9 000 miles 14 000 km These new lines were built by private companies and financed by a mixture of borrowed money stock sales and for a time aid from local governments During what one historian called southern Michigan s railroad mania 20 many lines were built without a true appreciation of potential profitability resulting in a financial landscape littered with bankruptcies and companies in receivership Railroads in Michigan today edit nbsp An Amtrak Wolverine pulls into Kalamazoo The tracks were part of the Michigan Central s Detroit Chicago main line See also List of Michigan railroads After a record high railroad mileage around the year 1910 the number of passenger railroad lines and services have been significantly reduced in Michigan in the course of the following century also many freight railroad tracks have been removed and discontinues in remote areas Some small portions of old track has been transformed to touristic use others for bike trails The Detroit passenger rail station has been moved from the central business district to the New Center The connection to Canada is secured not via boat anymore but through rail tunnels and bridges On the side of operators a concentration process has established one main passenger operator Amtrak and an important role for a small number of big freight operators Michigan is served by four Class I railroads the Canadian National Railway Canadian Pacific Kansas City CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway These are augmented by several dozen short line railroads The vast majority of rail service in Michigan is devoted to freight 21 Intercity passenger service edit See also Michigan Services There is Amtrak passenger rail service in the state connecting the cities of Detroit Ann Arbor East Lansing Grand Rapids Jackson Battle Creek Kalamazoo Flint and Port Huron to Chicago Illinois The three routes taken together carried 664 284 passengers for revenues of 20 3 million during fiscal year 2005 2006 a record 22 The Pere Marquette and Blue Water services received funding from the State of Michigan already for a long time Starting from 2014 the state funding was extended to the Wolverine services as well The Detroit Chicago corridor has been designated by the Federal Railroad Administration as a high speed rail corridor 23 A 97 mile 156 km stretch along the route of Blue Water and Wolverine from Porter Indiana to Kalamazoo Michigan is the longest segment of track owned by Amtrak outside of the Northeast Corridor 23 Amtrak began incremental speed increases along this stretch in January 2002 By 2012 trains were regularly running at the planned top speed of 110 miles per hour 180 km h between Porter and Kalamazoo 23 24 25 Commuter service edit See also WALLY commuter rail and SEMCOG Commuter Rail Michigan has not had commuter rail service since 1984 when Amtrak discontinued the Michigan Executive which ran between Ann Arbor and Detroit SEMTA had discontinued the Grand Trunk Western s old Pontiac Detroit service the year before 26 There are currently two new proposed systems under consideration WALLY which is backed by the Great Lakes Central Railroad and a coalition of Washtenaw County agencies and businesses would provide daily service between Ann Arbor and Howell The other a proposed project by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments would provide daily service between Detroit and Ann Arbor with stops in Ypsilanti Detroit Metro Airport and Dearborn Recent discussions have included possible extension of the project to Jackson 27 See also edit nbsp Railways portal History of Michigan List of Michigan railroads Rail transport in the United StatesNotes edit The Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad the River Raisin and Lake Erie Railroad the Shelby and Detroit Railroad and the Palmyra and Jacksonburgh Railroad 6 5 Endnotes edit a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Michigan s Railroad History 1825 2014 PDF Michigan Department of Transportation 2014 10 13 Retrieved 2023 11 29 Dunbar 1969 pp 14 18 Meints 2005 pp 235 237 Dunbar 1969 pp 20 22 a b c Meints 2005 pp 3 6 Dunbar 1969 pp 31 32 Dunbar 1969 p 26 Dunbar 1969 pp 30 33 Dunbar 1969 pp 33 35 a b Meints 1992 p 4 Dunbar 1969 pp 37 51 Dunbar 1969 pp 59 73 Dunbar 1969 pp 75 78 The Forests of Michigan University of Michigan Press 2003 p 143 ISBN 0472068164 Retrieved 5 March 2016 Dunbar 1969 pp 105 108 Dunbar 1969 p 110 Cochran 1950 pp 55 56 Dunbar 1969 pp 110 113 Dunbar 1969 pp 116 119 Dunbar 1969 p 127 Railroads Operating in Michigan PDF Michigan Department of Transportation Retrieved 2008 02 15 MDOT renews Amtrak contract notes record ridership on Michigan routes Michigan Department of Transportation November 16 2006 Retrieved 2006 11 20 a b c Amtrak Fact Sheet Fiscal Year 2005 PDF State of Michigan Retrieved 2006 10 30 Michigan Amtrak taking service to new speeds WNDU TV February 7 2002 Archived from the original on 2004 11 12 Retrieved 2006 11 01 Lovitt Rob October 24 2012 High speed rail efforts gain momentum around country NBC News Retrieved 2012 10 28 Transit History Transportation Riders United Archived from the original on 2010 07 06 Retrieved 2008 03 30 Jackson officials back fast commuter train Detroit Free Press Retrieved 2008 08 19 dead link References editCochran Thomas C 1950 North American Railroads Land Grants and Railroad Entrepreneurship The Journal of Economic History 10 Supplement The Tasks of Economic History 53 67 doi 10 1017 S0022050700065347 Dunbar Willis F 1969 All Aboard A History of Railroads in Michigan Grand Rapids Michigan William B Eerdmans OCLC 54650 Farmer Silas 1890 History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan S Farmer amp Co Grant H Roger and Charles W Bohi 1988 The Country Railroad Station in America Sioux Falls South Dakota The Center for Western Studies Augustana College ISBN 0 931170 41 9 Meints Graydon M 1992 Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies East Lansing Michigan Michigan State University Press ISBN 978 0 87013 318 3 Meints Graydon M 2005 Michigan Railroad Lines East Lansing Michigan Michigan State University Press ISBN 978 0 87013 693 1 Further reading editMeints Graydon M 2013 Railroads for Michigan East Lansing MI Michigan State University Press ISBN 978 1 60917 374 6 Michigan s Railroad History 1825 2014 PDF Michigan Department of Transportation January 2005 External links editRRHX Railroad History of Michigan Jackson s Evolution as a Rail Center https web archive org web 20090330055843 http www michiganrailroads com RRHX Stories JacksonEvolution htm Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title History of railroads in Michigan amp oldid 1215131632, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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