42°21′ N   83°04′ WINDEPENDENT CITY GUIDE · HU / ENDETROIT + MICHIGAN
QUARTER
DETROIT
The Congress Street southern terminus (2023)
42-BRT · CC BY-SA 4.0

QLINE / Stop 1 of 12

QLINE stopCongress Street

Center platform in the middle of Woodward · the QLINE’s southern terminus

The QLINE’s southern terminus in the middle of Woodward, two blocks from the Detroit River, next to the Guardian Building, the Spirit of Detroit and Hart Plaza.

↑ north: 8:00
↓ south: terminus
Platforms
one center platform
District
Downtown, Financial District
From Congress Street
terminus
From Grand Boulevard
24 min
Sponsor in 2017
Quicken Loans

01 / Story

The stop’s story

Congress Street is where the QLINE begins: a single platform in the middle of Woodward Avenue, where the double-ended streetcar simply changes direction and heads back north. Two blocks further south, Woodward ends at Jefferson Avenue, and on the riverfront lies Hart Plaza, roughly where Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landed in 1701 to found Detroit. Around you is the Financial District: the Art Deco tower of the Guardian Building, the Spirit of Detroit outside City Hall, and Joe Louis’s bronze fist at Jefferson.

Woodward’s first horsecar line opened on August 27, 1863, from Jefferson Avenue to Adams Avenue, roughly from here to Grand Circus Park: exactly the route of today’s first three QLINE stops. The streetcars vanished in 1956 and stayed away for 61 years. The Congress Street stop was adopted by Quicken Loans, the same company that bought the streetcar’s name in 2015, which is how it became the QLINE in 2016.

Congress Street is the boarding point for the city’s big days: in May 2024 the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix wrapped the downtown stops too. The People Mover’s Financial District station is about two blocks away on Larned Street; according to the RTA both rides are free, and you can switch from one to the other here.

  1. The QLINE’s southern terminus, with a single center platform
  2. Next to the Guardian Building and the Spirit of Detroit
  3. A five-minute walk to Hart Plaza and the RiverWalk
  4. A short walk to the People Mover’s Financial District station

02 / From the window

What you see from here

Facing north, the Guardian Building’s orange-brick tower rises on your left, with City Hall and the Spirit of Detroit on your right. Look back down Woodward past Hart Plaza and across the river: that’s Canada, Windsor.

03 / Timeline

The stop’s timeline

  1. Horsecars on Woodward

    Woodward’s first horsecar line opens from Jefferson Avenue to Adams Avenue.

  2. The Spirit of Detroit arrives

    Marshall Fredericks’s bronze goes up outside City Hall.

  3. Hart Plaza opens

    The riverfront plaza is named after Senator Philip Hart.

  4. Quicken Loans buys the name

    The company also sponsors the Congress Street stop; the streetcar is named QLINE in 2016.

  5. The QLINE opens

    Streetcars return to Woodward after 61 years.

  6. Grand Prix wraps

    The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix wraps the downtown stops.

  7. The streetcar stops here every fifteen minutes, free of charge.

04 / Did you know?

Did you know?

  • Woodward Avenue is state highway M-1, which gave the non-profit M-1 RAIL its name. The road starts here by the river and runs all the way to Pontiac.

  • Judge Augustus Woodward named the avenue after himself, then joked that it was really named for its direction: it runs “wood-ward”, toward the woods.

  • When it was dedicated in 1958, the Spirit of Detroit was the largest bronze statue cast since the Renaissance.

  • Look up: a short overhead wire runs above the terminus, even though most of downtown is wire-free. According to C3M, which designed the power system, the QLINE was the first streetcar to get charging points along its off-wire sections.

The Guardian Building’s Art Deco tower in the Financial District (2022)
JJonahJackalope · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Spirit of Detroit, Marshall Fredericks’s 1958 bronze outside City Hall (2020)
Coreyfein01 · CC BY 4.0
Woodward Avenue at the Congress Street stop (2018)
Fredlyfish4 · CC BY-SA 4.0
A streetcar among the towers, autumn 2018
Dane from Mi · CC BY 2.0
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.

05 / Nearby

Places within walking distance

Quarter Detroit places around the stop, with straight-line distances.

Around the stop, from the official QLINE list and the map

  • Guardian Building 1 min

    The 43-story Art Deco skyscraper, finished in 1929, is the jewel of the Financial District.

  • Spirit of Detroit 2 min

    Marshall Fredericks’s 1958 bronze outside City Hall, the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center; a symbol of the city.

  • Monument to Joe Louis 2 min

    The boxing legend’s bronze fist at Jefferson and Woodward, by Hart Plaza.

  • Hart Plaza and the RiverWalk 5 min

    The riverfront plaza opened in 1975; Isamu Noguchi’s Dodge Fountain stands at its center, and the riverside promenade runs past.

  • Renaissance Center 8 min

    Michigan’s tallest building stands at the center of this riverfront tower complex.

06 / Events

Events near the stop

Upcoming events at venues around the stop.

All events ↗