Detroit's QLINE streetcar: What you need to know

The return of a streetcar system to Detroit beginning this Friday will invariably raise questions for those who plan to use the 3.3-mile line on Woodward Avenue and those who will have to share the road with it. The Free Press has answers to some of the questions you might have:

Is there a warranty on the streetcars?

Brookville Equipment Corp. of Brookville, Pa., supplied the six red and white Liberty Modern Streetcars for the QLINE at a cost of $32 million, which also covers spare parts and support services. Brookville staff are expected to remain on-site over the next year.

Brookville officials estimate a life-span for the cars of 20 to 30 years.

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M-1 Rail provided a multi-page copy of what is listed as a "warranty," but declined to share the actual contract with the Free Press. The organization claims to not be subject to the Freedom of Information Act because it "is a private nonprofit corporation" and "the documents requested contain confidential and/or proprietary information."

Chief Operating Officer Paul Childs said that the "hard guts" of the streetcars -- anything that could be hit by a sledgehammer and bounce back -- is a 10-year warranty. Other items get either a five-year warranty -- roof, truck frame, axles and exterior painting -- or a two-year warranty for many other components and the batteries, which are expected to last five to six years. The warranty is "passed upward" to M-1 Rail for items on which Brookville gets a longer warranty than specified in the contract, Childs said.

It was not immediately clear if the warranty would be needed for a piece of paneling that fell off a streetcar during a test run this weekend. According to a Free Press report on Saturday, M-1 Rail spokesman Dan Lijana said a vendor, who had removed the panel to put on a graphic, did not secure it.

What happens if the crowd after a big event or a night on the town is a bit too rowdy?

M-1 Rail says ordinances that cover an "overly aggressive crowd" on the Detroit People Mover and Detroit Department of Transportation buses would apply. M-1 Rail is to pay for the services of transit police from the Detroit Transportation Corp., which operates the People Mover, to provide "all necessary security functions."

Nicole Brown, M-1 Rail's community relations manager, said at a recent community meeting that safety and security personnel would randomly ride the streetcars and be at the stations, which will also have emergency call boxes.

What if a streetcar breaks down, a vehicle blocks the rails, or there is snow?

In addition to the possibility that a vehicle is repaired on-site, M-1 Rail says it has three different methods to return inoperable streetcars to the Penske Tech Center, where the vehicles are stored and maintained:

• Commercial tow vehicle,
• A tow via M-1 Rail truck or
• Via coupling to another street car. 

Breakdowns would obviously have the potential to cause delays in the system, especially because if one streetcar stops, all will be stopped, according to Childs.

Streetcars can also be out of service for reasons that have nothing to do with the structure of the cars -- a lack of available drivers, inappropriate items being left on board and even what Childs refers to as "bio-accidents" on the cars.

If a car or delivery vehicle blocks the rails, M-1 Rail says it will contact law enforcement to assess the situation, possibly issuing a ticket (previously pegged at up to $650) or a tow could be ordered.

When asked whether special snow-removal equipment would be needed for the tracks, M-1 Rail says both the City of Detroit and the Michigan Department of Transportation, which have responsibility for different sections of Woodward, "have snow removal equipment that (is) capable of snow removal along the corridor."

How will QLINE handle big events that cause traffic delays along the line? 

With the opening of Little Caesars Arena later this year, the possibility for heavy traffic tie-ups on Woodward will increase.

M-1 Rail says it continues to work with other agencies on traffic-control techniques.

Streetcars can also do what are called short runs where the southern end of the line is at State Street, which is north of Campus Martius, and Sproat Street, which is just north of Little Caesars Arena, to avoid the heaviest traffic.

The streetcars generally stop at traffic lights, but they will have signal prioritization at five locations primarily "when the vehicle must navigate across traffic 'lane lines,'" to ensure a safe transition. That gives the streetcar a 15- to 20-second window as it moves to its new position, M-1 Rail says.

Why is it called QLINE?

When you're willing to pay $5 million for something, you tend to get what you want.

That's the amount that Dan Gilbert's Quicken Loans paid for the naming rights. Before the announcement in March 2016, the project was simply known as M-1 Rail, a name that continues for the organization responsible for building and operating the system.

Quicken also had registered several other names with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — Qlink, Quickline, Rocketrail and Qride — before settling on QLINE.

Free Press readers had offered their own suggestions — D-Line, Peace Train and Folly Trolley.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.