The Detroit People Mover with a Canadian Connection

The Detroit People Mover opened in 1987 and it was intended to be the downtown distributor for a proposed $600 million city and metro-wide rail transit system. This paper provides a brief history of transit in Detroit, development of the People Mover, its operations and challenges, and explores its future role as the Detroit M-1 light rail transit is completed. The paper also reviews the U.S. government downtown people mover (DPM) program of that era and the role that the Ontario government had in the development of automated guideway transit systems through its GO-Urban plans for Hamilton, Ottawa, and Toronto, and the formation of the urban transportation development corporation (UTDC). Although the GO-Urban project was abandoned, automated guideway systems developed by the UTDC were built in Scarborough (a Toronto suburb), Vancouver (the SkyTrain), and Detroit. It is a fascinating story that connects Canada with the Detroit People Mover.