I had a quick trip to Washington, D.C., last week and was quite literally stunned to see the progress on a fixed subway line out to Dulles Airport and beyond.

Of course, this is costing billions. It could only happen now in Washington, which appears to have unlimited money for such costly projects.

We need a much better, much bigger public transportation system in metropolitan Detroit. But I sure hope that we learned our lesson from the very short, very expensive rail line we built on Woodward Avenue.

I have no idea how it is doing now that everyone is aware of it, but I am sure it will always cost more to run than it takes in fares. It is near impossible for public transportation to break even.

Detroit cannot afford to build a fixed-rail system. Even the friendliest Congress is not going to give Detroit anywhere near the billions of dollars required to build fixed rail touching all three counties of metro Detroit.

Not only is it not financially possible, but it would simply not make good sense to build something that would be unmovable. Detroit needs the flexibility to be able to change transit as conditions change, and that would appear to be some sort of bus system.

Nowadays, those buses might be powered by fuel cells or electricity, but however they are powered, they would be able to shift routes as required.

We all seem to agree that we need a mass-transit upgrade. But I do hope cooler minds prevail in how we go about it. Although I can think of nothing cooler than a multibillion-dollar fixed-rail system, there are plenty of other places to spend our money first.

Buses would be a great addition to our community, and we would see the improvement immediately. That is not a bad thing.