Although negotiations appeared "quite productive" during late 1973, regarding the
Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority's plans to purchase the City of
Detroit's Department of Street Railways bus system, there remained guarded
optimism approaching the waning months of the Roman S. Gribbs administration.
But that optimism would soon change under the newly elected Coleman A. Young
administration, which took office in January of 1974. The negotiations would soon
sour, as conflicts developed over Detroit's representation numbers on the SEMTA
board, and also over what the Young administration perceived as SEMTA's lack of
a guarantee to maintain adequate service at a "reasonable fare" for Detroiters.
Disagreements also arose over whether a vote by the citizens of Detroit should be
a requirement before a SEMTA takeover could even take place -- a new provision
just added to the revised 1974 City Charter. Employee personnel issues, and the
protection of the rights of DSR employees also became major hurdles -- especially
regarding who would pay for employee fringe benefits. But the underlying major
obstacle appeared to be more centered around a continually growing distrust that
was developing between the City of Detroit and its surrounding suburbs.
Ironically, in July of the same year, the city-owned DSR bus system was slated to
be reorganized under Detroit's newly revised 1974 City Charter. The new revision
would turn the transit agency into a newly established city department. This now
gave the city full control of the department's operation and budget. Unlike the old
charter, this new arrangement allowed the City to finance any of the department's
remaining operational short-falls through the use of city general tax funds. It had
been assumed back then that a more secured regional funding source, dedicated
solely to funding mass transit, would eventually become available to SEMTA. This
would eventually relieve the City from having to further subsidize its bus system.
Unfortunately, any dedicated source of funding to support mass transit within the
entire region never materialized, and the anticipated take-over of the city-owned
system by SEMTA never transpired. What many anticipated as being a temporary
arrangement between the city and its transit system has basically continued now
for over thirty-two years.
Although SEMTA never owned the Detroit system, it was still obligated by UMTA
regulations to provide federal funding to all the transit operations located within
its territorial boundaries. All federally funded projects requested by DDOT had to
be approved and funded through SEMTA. This, of course, resulted in numerous
disputes throughout the years between the two agencies, with the DDOT officials
feeling that the city's transportation department wasn't receiving its fair allotment
of federal funding. All new bus purchases for DDOT also had to be determined by
SEMTA.
As far as a number of SEMTA achievements over the years, one would definitely
have to take into consideration the network of Park-and-Ride bus routes initiated
between the suburbs and downtown Detroit, the establishment of a uniform fare
structure, the allowment of transferring between DDOT and SEMTA routes, and
the formation of its small-bus Dial-a-Ride services. Over the years SEMTA gained
a reputation of having clean and on-time buses, and its service and performance
record was often used in the media to slam the faltering city-owned bus system.
Beginning in 1974, SEMTA contracted with Grand Trunk Western Railroad and
began offering commuter train service between Downtown Detroit and the city of
Pontiac. In 1976, SEMTA managed to purchase the locomotives, and the cars it
used, and even built parking lots along the route. Unfortunately, with downtown
employment falling, the Detroit-Pontiac commuter rail service was discontinued in
1983. Additional state funding for SEMTA did materialize in October 1976 when a
six-year surcharge on all license plates and auto title fees within Wayne, Oakland
and Macomb counties brought in additional revenue for SEMTA.
But along-side those successes, one would sadly have to also consider a number
of failures. Perhaps one of the greatest SEMTA failures was its overseeing of the
construction of the downtown People Mover Project. Begun in 1983 -- as the first
phase connector to a future Woodward Avenue subway -- the project was plagued
by mis-management, and numerous construction mis-haps. Nearly $66 million in
massive cost-overruns were being projected. With threats now looming that the
feds would soon cease all funding for the remainder of the project, an agreement
was reached with UMTA officials, where federal funding for other SEMTA projects
(including new buses) would have to be forfeited in order to finish the project.
In March 1985, with the project still incomplete, Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young
was able to convince the SEMTA Board to transfer final completion and control of
the project over to the City of Detroit. Consequently, total operation and complete
control of the Downtown People Mover fell under the city's newly created Detroit
Transportation Corporation, and continues so to this day.
Aside from the People Mover project fiasco, and the subsequent failure to begin
construction on a connecting subway and/or light-rail system, SEMTA's inability
to take-over the Detroit bus system has been considered by many to be the other
of the two great failures of the SEMTA years. Despite numerous attempts by the
agency to merge the two bus systems, it just couldn't overcome the overwhelming
racial divide and distrust which existed between Detroit and its suburbs. These
two factors have resisted all attempts at forming regional mass transit.
As the last of the eighties approached, it became more and more evident that the
surrounding metropolitan seven-county region had no intentions of supporting or
taxing themselves to build any rapid mass transit system associated with Detroit.
In addition, the region's outer-counties weren't interested in supporting any type
of rapid transit, with many feeling that SEMTA service wasn't needed within the
outlying areas. The ability to provide funding for the seven-county system was
becoming an almost impossible task. Consequently, a major change was needed.
On December 7, 1988, Public Act 204 was amended by the state legislature and
SEMTA was restructured from its seven-county jurisdiction, into a much smaller
three-county agency, which excluded the City of Detroit. It was renamed SMART
(Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation), and the new agency
began operations on January 17, 1989.
Although the demise of SEMTA basically spelled the end for any form of regional
transit funding and the development of regional mass-transit, it created an ironic
twist for the Detroit system. With the newly created agency no longer responsible
for distributing federal grants to Detroit, DDOT was now in the position to apply
directly to the FTA for its own grant money and operating subsidies. Although a
seeming victory for the Detroit system, the termination of SEMTA was viewed by
some as a major step backward in bringing regional mass transit to Southeastern
Michigan.
Recently, John Hertel (a former state senator, well known state politician and the
current general manager of the Michigan State Fair) was appointed as the region's
new transit coordinator during a recent meeting of the region's Big Four political
leaders on Mackinaw Island. It's the hope of many that he will accomplish what
many failed to do in nearly forty years - that is, bring a coordinated regional mass
transit system to the region. Of course, only time will tell on this one, but if those
past attitudes remain the same, then Hertel too will be a dream not come true.
The two SMART articles were complied from information gathered from various Detroit Free Press and Detroit News
newspaper articles supplied by Stan Sycko, and from miscellaneous Jack Schramm articles on the history of SEMTA
and SMART. For a more detailed account on the history of both SEMTA and SMART, along with the history of the
Pontiac Bus System, see the October-December 2003 edition of Motor Coach Age magazine.
