The Phantom Ford Freeway Bus Station

Driving east along the Ford Freeway, just as you start to pass under Woodward Avenue, nestled between the right-hand eastbound lane and the Woodward Avenue exit ramp is a single concrete lane that skirts one of the bridge piers.  The lane is narrow, in disrepair and defied until recently my ability to determine its purpose. Was this a maintenance vehicle lane?  Was this a lane dedicated to emergency vehicles?  Were cars just smaller in the 1950s?

Aerial view Woodward Avenue I-94 overpass
( Bing maps Birdseye view)

View traveling eastbound on I-94 exiting
at Exit 215C Woodward Avenue
(Bing maps Streetside view)

Having traveled this section of I-94 for more than 10 ten years, it took an accidental Google search to reveal its actual purpose. What I Googled was "I-94 bus lane Detroit".  What was revealed was the story of a phantom bus station.

The story begins with the 1945 Detroit Expressway and Transit System Plan.  The plan proposes a network of expressways that would radiate outward from the downtown area.  One of these radial highways would be a "Crosstown" superhighway that would later become the Ford Freeway.  It called for the use of streetcars, operating as high-speed trains, within the central mall portion of the expressway.  It also called for maintaining street cars along Woodward and converting existing street cars on Fort, Gratiot, Jefferson and Michigan to electric trolley-buses.  When these streetcars and trolley-buses reached downtown, they would operate underground.  Multiple downtown subway stations were planned, the terminus being an underground plaza at Cadillac Square.



Proposed Underground Cadillac Square Plaza
image credit

Proposed Underground Cadillac Square Plaza
image credit

Now there was obvious opposition to these plans with surprising opposition coming from the city-owned Department of Street Railways (DSR).  They had a different vision for alleviating post-war Detroit traffic congestion.  Their proposal advocated for the complete elimination of any and all rail service.  They instead proposed a plan for integrating high-speed bus service with plans for Detroit's radial highway system.  Quoting their report, they considered high-speed buses "a superior type of rapid transit".



Department of Street Railways (DSR) bus circa 1951
image credit

So here's where the story get interesting.  The highways were built, but the underground, and center median rail system was not.  Instead, special bus boarding stations were incorporated into the design of the Ford Freeway.


Stairs leading from Woodward Avenue overpass
to bus loading stations at Ford Freeway level
image credit

On Monday, January 31, 1955, the DSR launched its new Plymouth Express bus service which operated along two brand new Detroit expressways.  Special bus boarding stations were located along the Ford Freeway at Livernois, Grand River and Woodward Avenue.

Completed but never opened DSR
 eastbound bus loading station
image credit

And here's where we finally learn about our mysterious abandoned bus lane.  For the cost of $29,500, four stairs were built at the Woodward Avenue overpass.  The stairs were meant to allow passengers to enter bus loading stations at freeway level.  The stairs and loading platforms were built, but were never opened.  It was determined after the fact that there was insufficient, "passenger volume to justify the new line."  The stair remained unused for 5 years until in 1960, for $63,500, the stairs were demolished and the eastbound and westbound on-ramps reconfigured.  What still remains today is the original unaltered eastbound bus lane.

Now our mystery is solved; however, solutions to Detroit's mass transit issues are just beginning.


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Information used in the above article was taken from the Detroit Transit History website.  The following is a link to their article and video discussing the "Edsel B. Ford (I-94) Expressway Bus Stops".

Additional information can be found in the Detroit News Article entitled "Stairway to Nowhere" (December 20, 1959).  A retyped copy of the article can be found at this link.