People Mover reopens after $1.5M upgrade, will now travel clockwise

The Detroit People Mover opened Saturday after being closed for $1.5 million in upgrades since July 20 — two days earlier than expected. But you might notice something slightly different when a car goes by overhead: that’s because after 21 years of counter-clockwise operation, the People Mover is now running clockwise.

The switch will cut time off the rides between the stops that the Detroit Transportation Corp., the system’s owner and operator, has observed to be the most-used. After all, when the People Mover was built, the Financial District was the busiest part of town; now that has shifted up to Campus Martius and Grand Circus Park, altering travel patterns.

The switch will shave 26 seconds off the full 15-minute loop.

The construction, which replaced six sections of track, also enables the Detroit Construction Corp. to more easily flip the direction of the trains whenever they choose, which might come in handy for large events like the Final Four in 2009. “They’ll examine it on a case-by-case basis,” says Peter Van Dyke, a spokesperson for the agency.

Source: Peter Van Dyke, Berg Muirhead
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh