QLINE / Stop 10 of 12
QLINE stopAmsterdam Street
Center platform in the middle of Woodward · park-and-ride next door
The first center-platform stop in the north, next to Wayne State’s park-and-ride lot: TechTown, the Pistons’ training center and the Model T’s birthplace, Ford’s Piquette Avenue Plant, are nearby.
Live GPS positions
- Platforms
- one center platform
- District
- New Center
- From Congress Street
- 22 min
- From Grand Boulevard
- 2 min
- Sponsor in 2017
- Ford Motor Company
01 / Story
The stop’s story
New Center begins at Amsterdam Street, and here the streetcar moves to the middle of Woodward: every stop from here to Grand Boulevard has a single center platform. The stop was adopted by Ford Motor Company, whose support was announced at the rail-signing ceremony on September 15, 2014. A good nine-minute walk east is Ford’s Piquette Avenue Plant: in the 1904 brick factory the Model T was developed and first built, and the first 12,000 were made here.
Amsterdam is the line’s car park too: under the park-and-ride program with Wayne State University you can leave your car in Lot 12 (6050 Woodward, entrance off Harper Avenue) from Friday to Sunday for $5 and ride the streetcar downtown for free. During the three days of the 2024 NFL Draft, nearby lots worked as park-and-ride sites as well.
The area around the stop is a new district of research and sport: the TechTown innovation hub occupies a 1927 Albert Kahn building on Burroughs Street, the Detroit Pistons train nearby at the Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center, and Wayne State’s Integrative Biosciences Center is here too.
- The first center platform in the north
- Park-and-ride in Wayne State’s Lot 12
- The Model T’s birthplace a nine-minute walk away
- TechTown and the Pistons’ training center nearby
02 / From the window
What you see from here
From the center platform you can see down Woodward both ways: south to the I-94 bridge, north to the railway overpass, with the Fisher Building’s tower rising behind it. Look up: a short overhead wire runs above the stop, even though the north end is mostly wire-free, and city data show a traction substation right beside it.
03 / Timeline
The stop’s timeline
The Piquette plant is built
Ford’s second factory, in Milwaukee Junction.
The first Model T
The Ford Model T is built on Piquette Avenue.
Ford comes aboard
At the rail-signing ceremony Ford is announced as the sponsor of the Amsterdam Street stop.
The stop opens
The first center platform on the north end of the line.
NFL Draft
Nearby lots serve as park-and-ride sites for Draft visitors.
Park-and-ride
The QLINE and Wayne State announce their park-and-ride program.
The streetcar stops here every fifteen minutes, free of charge.
04 / Did you know?
Did you know?
The Piquette plant was the first factory to assemble more than 100 cars in a day.
Several Ford models were built here before the Model T; Ford moved on to Highland Park in 1910.
North of Amsterdam Street every stop has a center platform: the tracks move to the middle of Woodward here.
A closer look
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-26
Every fact is sourced. Where sources disagree (the number of stops, the weight of the cars or the construction cost, for example) we follow the primary, official source and say so in the text. The timetable comes from the QLINE’s official GTFS data and live positions from the RTA’s feed.
- QLINE – On the Line ↗
- City of Detroit Open Data – QLine Stops ↗
- QLINE – Plan your ride (archived 2017) ↗
- QLINE, 2024-05-20 – Park and ride pilot with Wayne State ↗
- M-1 RAIL – QLINE Annual Report 2024 (PDF) ↗
- QLINE, 2024-05-07 – Ridership record during the NFL Draft ↗
- City of Detroit Open Data – QLine M1 OnWire ↗
- C3M Power Systems – QLINE M-1 streetcar ↗
- Detroit Free Press, 2014-09-16 – Tom Walsh: M-1 Rail makes noise as new donors push the streetcar ahead (archived) ↗
- QLINE – station guide (archived 2018) ↗
- City of Detroit Open Data – QLine M1 TPSS Locations ↗
- Wikipedia – Ford Piquette Avenue Plant ↗
- Wikipedia – Woodward Avenue ↗
- Wikipedia – QLine ↗
05 / Nearby
Places within walking distance
Quarter Detroit places around the stop, with straight-line distances.
- 5 min walk · 294 mWoodward Bar & GrillFor decades Detroit's oldest gay bar and a home for Black LGBTQ+ Detroiters, open from 1954 until a fire destroyed it in 2022.
- 6 min walk · 347 mHenry Ford Health Detroit Pistons Performance CenterThe Detroit Pistons' practice facility and headquarters in New Center, home to a Henry Ford Health sports medicine center.
- 7 min walk · 434 mTrans-Lux Theatre (Woodward)The only Detroit work of celebrated New York theatre architect Thomas W. Lamb: a small 1932 newsreel house on Woodward whose rear-projection daylight system meant you didn't need a fully darkened room.
- 7 min walk · 434 mPistons Sports & EntertainmentThe company behind the Detroit Pistons, the Motor City Cruise, the team's training center and 313 Presents, the concert and events arm.
- 8 min walk · 522 mAlan C. Young & Associates, P.C.Detroit CPA firm on Woodward: audits, tax, bookkeeping and financial consulting for businesses and nonprofits.
9 min walk · 524 mHotel Saint Regis DetroitA six-story limestone hotel on West Grand Boulevard in New Center, built in 1966 in an old-world French style, steps from the Fisher Building and the Fisher Theatre.
9 min walk · 545 mMilwaukee JunctionWhere the Model T was born: brick factories now full of studios, cocktail bars, some of Detroit's hottest kitchens and warehouse parties.- 9 min walk · 560 mCorporate 52 Marketing GroupDetroit promo and branding company: corporate gifts, swag bags, printing and company stores, going since 2013.
- 9 min walk · 560 mDetroit DonutDoughnut business listed as a food truck with a New Center office address; we haven't yet confirmed it independently.
Around the stop, from the official QLINE list and the map
- Ford Piquette Avenue Plant 9 min
The Model T’s birthplace, a 1904 brick factory, now a car museum.
- TechTown
An innovation hub in a 1927 Albert Kahn building on Burroughs Street.
- Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center
The Detroit Pistons’ training center.
- Detroit Children’s Museum
A children’s museum, one of the QLINE’s official destinations.
- Detroit Amtrak station 4 min
At the next stop, Baltimore Street.
06 / Events
Events near the stop
Upcoming events at venues around the stop.
No nearby events in the calendar right now.
All events ↗