There was something of a Grand Vision twist to last night's Michigan By Rail Forum at the Civic Center.

Roughly 130 people attended and they certainly did not sit around listening to a series of experts talk about rail. Instead, everyone broke off into groups around large sized Michigan maps. And with a variety of stickers, they got to point out where their hometowns were and where they felt are special places in the State they would like to travel to. Then with rulers and pencils they drew out where they felt the rail lines should go.

Each group then got to show off their map with their ideas about the future of rail to the entire crowd. What is special about this, is that the maps are now going to go to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to aid in the creation of of a statewide rail transportation plan.

"This is the Grand Vision in action," said Hans Voss, Executive Director of the Michigan Land Use Institute. "I think this is a rail revival we are about to participate in."

And people did participate as the floor was opened up to questions. On hand were the MDOT State Transportation Director Kirk Steudle, Tim Fisher of the Michigan Environmental Council, State Representative Wayne Schmidt (R-104th), State Representative Dan Scripps (D-101st), State Representative Bob Genetski (R-88th), and Derek James from AMTRAK.

"So what about rail?" asked the audience.

What would it take to get rail in Michigan?

State Transportation Director Steudle responded by saying that "We have to figure out how we are going to pay for this." He said that as taxpayers we are going to have to make rail a priority.

State Rep. Genetski echoed the same sentiment. He spoke to the need to shorten existing travel times across the state from seven to eight hours to only a few hours. But, he noted, it costs between $300-$350,000 to improve just one mile of track.

That is just improving an existing rail line, not laying down a new track.

Some people asked about federal money, noting the eight billion dollars that was recently promised for high speed rail.

Steudle pointed out that the only corridor that qualified for that federal funding was between Detroit and Chicago. He also said that a significant high-speed rail network system across the United States would cost into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

So current federal spending, is more of an investment start, rather than the fix, in and of itself.

Some residents asked about opening rail up to private enterprise.

Steudle said that last year, Lansing, approved an initiative for private rail in Detroit. The advantage, he said, to keeping AMTRAK as the provider is that because they currently exist they can absorb the administrative functions and structure. However, he said, if there was private interest, that would absolutely be a possibility.

This forum was the fourth stop on a nine forum tour of the state.

Interested in getting involved and having your say? You are in luck. These nine forums are the prelude to MDOT's official public input sessions that will take place this fall. More details will be forthcoming in the months ahead.

Plus, for residents in Northern Michigan, Rep. Schmidt is the chair of the Rail committee in Lansing and is a strong advocate for increasing rail in Michigan.

And, of course, there is the Grand Vision Transportation Working Group and Rail Subcommittee that would be happy to have you join them and move the region forward towards rail.