Birmingham, Troy hire lobbyists to find funds for transit center

You know they’re serious about a project when they break out the lobbyists. That’s the case with the Troy-Birmingham Intermodal Transit Center.Local leaders have hired Detroit-based Clark Hill to lobby state and federal lawmakers, government agencies and potential non-governmental partners for funding for the train station for the northern extension of the Detroit-Ann Arbor Commuter Rail line.The project will build a regional transit center that will serve trains, buses, bicycles and pedestrians. It will be located in Birmingham’s Rail District, which is on the city’s border with Troy. Construction is set to begin in 2010.A plans to connected a streetcar line to the station that will also connect downtown Birmingham, Birmgingham’s Triangle District, the Rail District Sommerset Mall and the planned Troy Pavillions has also been mentioned.Source: Clark HillWriter: Jon Zemke