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QLINE Receives Final Touches Ahead Of 2017 Opening [VIDEO]

DETROIT (WWJ) -- The brand new QLINE rail service in Detroit reached a major milestone on Friday.

The last of more than six miles of rail has been installed and welded together along Woodward Avenue from the downtown area to the New Center area.

M-1 Rail Chief Operating Officer Paul Childs says traffic along Woodward will be fully reopened by Thanksgiving.

"It's a long journey from hate to love -- 27 months," Childs said. "We'll be opened up by the Thanksgiving Day Parade, it'll be opened to traffic, everybody's starting to see a whole new landscape here."

Childs said that the defeat of the Regional Transit Authority millage during Tuesday's election may eventually have an impact on the rail.

"We're prepared to run for 10 years, from that side we're OK," Childs said. "Are we disappointed? Absolutely we're disappointed. We think we have a couple years to be able to go at it again."

The scheduled opening of actual public ridership for the QLINE is April 2017. A public information period will have to happen before the rail system becomes operational.

"[It will be] to educate the drivers, the delivery people, the post office, FedEx, the beer truck delivery," Childs said in September. "All of those people dropping people off in front of buildings — valets — all of those things have to be educated and worked through. They're related to starting the system up and assuring a safe and reliable ride for our customers."

The cost of a walk up ticket to ride the 3.3-mile rail system — going from W. Grand Boulevard in the New Center area to Grand Circus Park — will be $1.50.

Billionaire Dan Gilbert and his company Quicken Loans were allowed the naming rights after Gilbert donated nearly $10 million to the $140 million project.

The company says it expects QLINE to "become a catalyst for economic growth," as has been in other communities that have implemented similar streetcar systems, including Portland, Dallas, Denver and Seattle.

The federal government also committed more than $37 million.

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