DPM Opened Ahead of Schedule on Aug. 16

Detroit People Mover Reopens Early and Makes Changes

Cars to travel loop differently after 21 years of counterclockwise direction

DETROIT– The Detroit People Mover (DPM) announced today it will switch directions, with cars moving clockwise around the 2.9 mile route when it resumes operations two days ahead of schedule starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, August 16.

Barbara Hansen, general manager of the Detroit Transportation Corporation (DTC) announced the early opening is occurring because replacement of six segments of track is complete.  The system is providing free rides for patrons from Saturday through midnight on Monday, August 18.  The new direction, she said, is the result of downtown’s evolution since the People Mover first opened in 1987. The clockwise route shaves approximately 26 seconds off of the 15 minute round trip.

“A great deal of development has occurred downtown since the People Mover first began service and the majority of our traffic is now concentrated at a different area of the route,” said Hansen.  “The new clockwise direction will offer quicker connections between some of Downtown Detroit’s most popular destinations. The decision was made to change directions based on monitoring and analysis of our ridership patterns as well as feedback from our passengers in recent years.”

The rail project began on Sunday, July 20 to replace 1,800 feet of track in worn areas around the six tightest guideway curves. This project was the latest in a series of extensive renovations and improvements that have been made to the system during the past six years.

The project was completed by Detroit Transportation Corporation staff and a contracted team consisting of the Detroit office of Parsons Brinkerhoff as the project manager; guideway survey work by Advanced Geomatics and Delta Railroad Construction, Inc., which performed the rail construction.

Larry Laurello, president of Delta Railroad Construction, was on hand for the majority of the rail replacement.  “The (Delta) team was committed and worked seven days a week,” said Laurello. “The People Mover was one of our best and most interesting projects; it was efficiently conducted due to several factors including pre-planning, safety and quality control. This is the tightest guideway we’ve ever worked on, but everything came off effortlessly.”

“We had the industry’s best working on this project,” said Hansen. “Some of our employees and contractors were part of the original construction team 21 years ago, while others are highly-skilled on new cutting-edge technology. The collaboration made this project seamless. 

“When we began to research this project we were told a project this nature and technical complexity would typically take up to three months to complete.  The fact that our construction team was able to streamline the process so that we could reopen in less than one month speaks to the quality of the team we assembled and their dedication to making this a success,” she added.