Detroit People Mover

Elevated automated downtown loop, an oddity worth one ride

The People Mover is a 2.9-mile elevated automated rail loop that circles downtown Detroit, stopping at 13 stations including Greektown, Renaissance Center, Joe Louis Arena, Times Square, and the Financial District. The trains are small, the stations are decorated with public art, and the whole thing exists in a state of cheerful obsolescence.

A single fare is 75 cents and the entire loop takes about 15 minutes. Use it for the views, the strange feeling of an empty futuristic train, or as a genuinely useful way to skip a few blocks in a hurry. Operates daily.

things to do sight downtown
A story
The People Mover opened in 1987 as the downtown leg of a regional rapid-transit system whose other legs were never built. For nearly forty years it has circled three miles of downtown alone, the most underused mass-transit project in America and, in a strange way, one of its most charming.

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