Michigan high-speed rail backers have prototype funding

Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News

East Lansing -- Private investors have stepped forward with enough money to build a prototype for a futuristic elevated rail system that would race along freeway routes between Lansing, Ann Arbor and Detroit, according to experts who testified at a hearing on the proposal Monday.

State Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, who heads a task force looking into whether the state should grant easements for the rail line along Interstate 96, U.S. 23 and I-94, said the system is possible -- provided there's private funding to meet the $2.3 billion price tag.

"If they truly can finance it, I don't know why it couldn't exist," Rogers said. "I just don't know if the money is there."

The "MagLev" rail line would incorporate hydrogen and solar technology, and magnetic forces would help propel train cars along stainless steel tubes. Other tubes could serve as conduits for fiber optic cable, electrical lines and utilities like water and natural gas. All are technologies in use in high-speed rail systems in Japan, China and Portugal, its developers said.

Connie Murry Cole of Interstate Traveler Co. LLC, the Detroit company that developed the system, said they have at least enough funding to build a prototype within a year, although the location has not been determined.

The company is also exploring its options in other countries, Cole added.

"We don't want it to leave Michigan," Cole said. "We want our state to come back up as a leader in the world."

Michigan State University professor James Anderson, an economic historian, said the plan could revolutionize transportation -- if it gets off the ground. He testified in support of the plan.

"It's going to provide increased transport speed, efficiency and safety," Anderson said. "And we haven't even begun to count its job creation potential."

Larry Jasper, the Bloomfield Hills-based Omega Investments Ltd. chief executive officer, said his company has committed to a major investment in the venture. "The MagLevis the only way we're going to get into the 21st century," Jasper said. "It is the future (of transportation)."

The task force will hold its next hearing July 10 in Ann Arbor.

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