Via Ellis Simon over at the Riding My Train blog comes these haunting pictures from Joe Braun’s thorough exploration into Detroit’s abandoned Michigan Central Station. The creepy photos are a sad reminder of the wholesale destruction of rail transportation on all levels in this country… a phenomenon that was particularly acute in the heart of the storm – Detroit.
As Braun points out, the station was perhaps doomed from the start. The builders purposefully constructed the depot in a far flung corner of the city, hoping to anchor economic development in the area. When the streetcar service to the station shut down, a lack of adequate parking and access to transit and density unsurpringinly signed MCS’s death warrant.
Photo credit: Joe Braun
Filed under: Regional USA Passenger Rail, Travel Woes
At least Memphis managed to save one of the stations … the Central Station. Unfortunately the Union Station, which was stunning, was torn down many years ago.