The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It cost an estimated $160 million to build. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway.
The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Père Jacques Marquette S.J. (1637–1675), a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.
Michigan Services are three Amtrak passenger rail routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with the Michigan cities of Grand Rapids, Port Huron, and Detroit, and stations en route. The group is a component of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative.
The St. Clair Tunnel is the name for two separate rail tunnels which were built under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. The original, opened in 1891 and used until it was replaced by a new larger tunnel in 1995, was the first full-size subaqueous tunnel built in North America. It is a National Historic Landmark of the United States, and has been designated a civil engineering landmark by both US and Canadian engineering bodies.
The Michigan Central Railroad was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in the United States and the province of Ontario in Canada. After about 1867 the railroad was controlled by the New York Central Railroad, which later became part of Penn Central and then Conrail. After the 1998 Conrail breakup, Norfolk Southern Railway now owns much of the former Michigan Central trackage.
The Michigan Air–Line Railway was a short-line railroad in Oakland County, Michigan. It ran from West Bloomfield, Michigan to Wixom, Michigan, where it connected to CSX. The headquarters and station were in Walled Lake, Michigan. The name was owned by Railmark Holdings, Inc. The railroad ran its last Michigan Star Clipper Dinner Train on December 31, 2008.
An air-line railroad was a railroad that was relatively straight, following a shorter route instead of a longer, winding route. In their heyday, which was prior to aviation, they were often referred to simply as "air lines". For example, a 1903 novel indicates a character's success by noting his position as "superintendent of passenger traffic of the New York and Chicago Air Line", a fictitious railroad.
Brush Street Station was a passenger train station on the eastside of downtown Detroit, Michigan, located at the foot of Brush Street at its intersection with Atwater Street and bordered by the Detroit River to the south.
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 Toledo Division was the southern half of the Pere Marquette Railway's main line, which ran from Ludington, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio. The Toledo Division encompassed the portion which ran from Toledo north to Saginaw, Michigan, where it met the Ludington Division. The line was built by a predecessor of the PM, the Flint & Pere Marquette, and is currently owned by CSX Transportation.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The Saginaw Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of Michigan. The line runs 105 miles from Toledo, Ohio, to Saginaw, Michigan. CSX owns the line although since 2006, the section from Mt. Morris to Saginaw has been leased to the Lake State Railway but is still occasionally used by CSX. The Plymouth to Mt. Morris line was also leased to LSRC starting in March 2019.
The Michigan Star Clipper Dinner Train was a dinner train that operated in Michigan for 24 years, first out of Paw Paw, for approximately two years, then from Walled Lake, with trips heading from West Bloomfield to Wixom, where it connects to the CSX mainline and then back to West Bloomfield, MI. On December 31, 2008, the operators of the dinner train announced that they would be shutting down the route due to poor ridership and increased costs in fuel and other various expenses.
The Michigan Air Line Trail was a working title for a 270-mile (430 km) non-motorized pathway running across the southern portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula from Port Huron to South Haven. The trail is now known as the Great Lake to Lake Trail, Route #1. This trail is made up of roughly 132 miles (212 km) of existing trails with 108 miles (174 km) of temporary routing. It is part of a system of cross-state trails proposed by the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance back in 2007.
The Pontiac Transportation Center is an intermodal terminal station located in Pontiac, Michigan that is served by Amtrak's Michigan Services Wolverine. The transportation center is also served by Indian Trails intercity bus service and Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) regional bus service.
SEMTA Commuter Rail, also known as the Silver Streak, was a commuter train operated by the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) and the Grand Trunk Western Railroad between Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan. 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 began offering intercity service between Detroit and Pontiac in 1994 as part of its Michigan Services.
