SE Florida Tri-Rail Commuter News

[eleven=11]

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflor...in-delray.html
tri-rail or csx? new train building Delray Beach area

[bobdreamz]

Tri-Rail chief says downtown Miami link is ‘going to happen’.

"It's going to happen" said Jack Stephens, the executive director of South Florida Regional Transit Authority, a.k.a. Tri-Rail, about the extension of Tri-Rail into Downtown Miami. They have most of the money promised to build their portion of the Downtown MiamiCentral station. The last $20 million is coming from the Florida Department of Transportation, which has not yet released the money due to an "insurance complication because of the interaction of private and public rail passengers on about a four-mile stretch of line near 71st Street," says the Miami Herald. Yes, that sounds silly, but Stephens has indicated to the Herald that he sees FDOT getting over it, and BOOM, here comes the choo choo. If everything goes to plan, they expect to be operational by the first or second quarter of 2017.


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca.../09-03-TriRail

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...e33635637.html

[eleven=11]

did the miami airport TriRail station ever open for amtrak?
i read somewhere 2016? any news.......

[N830MH]

Originally Posted by eleven=11

did the miami airport TriRail station ever open for amtrak?
i read somewhere 2016? any news.......

No, we haven't hear any news lately. You have to be patient for a while.

[bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by eleven=11

did the miami airport TriRail station ever open for amtrak?
i read somewhere 2016? any news.......

Tri-Rail station opened on April 5th. of this year. eleven=11 do you live in the Miami metro?


http://i.imgur.com/vVfXNSl.jpg

The last component of the Miami Intermodal Center to open will be Amtrak in the summer of 2016 due to the Feds & the state miscommunicating about the length of the train platforms:

In January 2013, FDOT acknowledged that it learned only after construction began that the Amtrak trains would be longer than expected. So the platform built to serve Amtrak was about 200 feet too short, meaning that some trains would jut north into busy Northwest 25th Street.

Link : http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...le8224242.html

[eleven=11]

any progress on amtrak? 2-3 years ago I drove my mother&aunt to MIA airport
almost missed the flight because of I95 was a parking lot.
Next time we take Tri-Rail
http://southfloridagaynews.com/Wilto...l-station.html
big news east coast tri-rail

[N830MH]

Originally Posted by eleven=11

any progress on amtrak? 2-3 years ago I drove my mother&aunt to MIA airport
almost missed the flight because of I95 was a parking lot.
Next time we take Tri-Rail
http://southfloridagaynews.com/Wilto...l-station.html
big news east coast tri-rail

We haven't hear any news about Amtrak yet. You have be patient. Give it a time. They will bring Amtrak to MIA Airport station sometime next April 2016.

[N830MH]

http://malled.blog.palmbeachpost.com...tion-in-miami/

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority on Friday unanimously approved an agreement that would bring Tri–Rail to All Aboard Florida‘s station in downtown Miami — a move that would ultimately allow the commuter rail service to run between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks.

[N830MH]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...e57024563.html

Could bring Tri-Rail to new Mall? How about that?

Let the speculation begin!!

[eleven=11]

Could bring Tri-Rail to new Mall? How about that?
Let the speculation begin!!

i read the herald article good stuff but still think miami/dade
could never pull this off. But this new shopping mall might help....
maybe the AAF/FEC people could help take over and manage tri-rail?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medley,_Florida

[bobdreamz]

Downtown Miami Tri-Rail link in doubt after legislative inaction.
March 11, 2016


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...640/tri%20rail

HIGHLIGHTS

*Tri-Rail officials had hoped for an amendment, which the Legislature killed.

*Questions of liability may kill Tri-Rail’s downtown Miami station.

*Agency executives say they’ll try to save the project.

BY DAVID SMILEY
dsmiley@miamiherald.com

Tri-Rail’s downtown Miami link looks like it’s on life-support after representatives of the commuter rail service failed to pass what they called crucial legislation in Tallahassee.

Officials with the public South Florida Regional Transportation Authority had hoped to get an amendment onto a transportation bill that would clarify who would be liable when a passenger train crashes on railway shared by public and private trains. But the bill passed without the amendment, which they had said was critical, since their link requires using the Florida East Coast Railway, a private line.

And they said it was imperative that the legislation pass this year, since Tri-Rail has planned to build a terminus into All Aboard’s MiamiCentral station, which is already under construction. Without the indemnification clarified, SFRTA authorities have feared the Florida Department of Transportation won’t commit the final $20 million they need to connect to downtown. That could mean All Aboard would back away from a Tri-Rail platform in its transit hub.

"IN THE NEXT WEEK, WE WILL EXPLORE WHAT OPTIONS -- IF ANY -- TO BRING TRI-RAIL TO DOWNTOWN"
Jack Stephens, executive director South Florida Regional Transportation AuthoritY

“We are deeply disappointed in the Legislature’s failure to act,” said Jack Stephens, executive director of the SFRTA. “In the next week, we will explore what options — if any — to bring Tri-Rail to downtown.”

If Tri-Rail’s bid to run trains into downtown dies — they’ve called piggybacking on All Aboard’s downtown station a one-time shot due to the high price of Miami real estate — it would be a blow to the politicians who pushed last year for $45 million in public funds to help pay for the project.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...#storylink=cpy

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* This is from post # 22 above in September of 2015 regarding the Insurance problem :

"The last $20 million is coming from the Florida Department of Transportation, which has not yet released the money due to an "insurance complication because of the interaction of private and public rail passengers on about a four-mile stretch of line near 71st Street," says the Miami Herald. Yes, that sounds silly, but Stephens has indicated to the Herald that he sees FDOT getting over it, and BOOM, here comes the choo choo.

So basically this Tri-Rail station @ the under construction All Aboard’s downtown Miami Central station may not come to fruition because of a "Insurance indemnification" issue covering just 4 miles of track.



http://cleantechnica.com/files/2015/...2.31.04-PM.png

^ We will lose the ability to build the Tri-Rail platforms in the diagram above because of the ineptitude of the Florida Legislature.

Unbelievable !!!

[a very long weekend]

given the low quality of florida's political class, it's pretty surprising anything gets done.

[N830MH]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...e73396717.html

Even without the state’s help, Tri-Rail officials have found a way to finally bring the commuter trains directly to downtown Miami.

Thanks to some last-minute legal maneuvering — and Tri-Rail’s decision on Friday to borrow money to close a $20 million funding gap — plans for a downtown Miami station are now once again chugging along.

“The project’s too important for the region, certainly to Miami-Dade, certainly to the city of Miami,” said Jack Stephens, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), which runs Tri-Rail. “So it had to happen, but we had to figure out a way to make it happen.”

By the end of 2018, Tri-Rail’s downtown Miami station should be operating — ferrying commuters from north Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Tri-Rail passengers who want to get to downtown currently have to transfer to Miami-Dade’s Metrorail line in Hialeah, an inconvenience that makes it harder to convince commuters to abandon their cars.

[bobdreamz]

^

Originally Posted by N830MH

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...e73396717.html

Quote:
Even without the state’s help, Tri-Rail officials have found a way to finally bring the commuter trains directly to downtown Miami.

Thanks to some last-minute legal maneuvering — and Tri-Rail’s decision on Friday to borrow money to close a $20 million funding gap — plans for a downtown Miami station are now once again chugging along.

“The project’s too important for the region, certainly to Miami-Dade, certainly to the city of Miami,” said Jack Stephens, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), which runs Tri-Rail. “So it had to happen, but we had to figure out a way to make it happen.”

By the end of 2018, Tri-Rail’s downtown Miami station should be operating — ferrying commuters from north Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Tri-Rail passengers who want to get to downtown currently have to transfer to Miami-Dade’s Metrorail line in Hialeah, an inconvenience that makes it harder to convince commuters to abandon their cars.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is great news !
Of course no thanks to the FLorida Legislature who would have let this project die !

More from the article above :

Florida’s Legislature nearly wrecked Tri-Rail’s downtown Miami plans when lawmakers this session failed to pass an amendment that would have clarified the legal liability if a crash ever occurred on the Florida East Coast railway tracks that will be used by Tri-Rail and All Aboard.

When lawmakers failed to act, that also created a funding problem, because the Florida Department of Transportation wouldn’t kick in its planned Tri-Rail contribution of roughly $20 million unless the law had been changed.

In effect, a minor legal technicality was threatening to sabotage a hugely important piece of South Florida’s future transportation plans.
Tri-Rail was able to solve the problem in the following way:

▪ Tri-Rail will set up its own self-insurance fund, which will solve the crash liability issue. It’s not a perfect solution, as Tri-Rail will have to set aside a dedicated reserve of $5 million, and pay annual premiums expected to be around $1 million. The SFRTA will continue pushing for a state law change in future years in hopes of eventually eliminating that expense.

▪ Tri-Rail will borrow roughly $20 million to replace the missing FDOT contribution. Tri-Rail currently receives millions in funding from local governments, and a portion of that money will go toward repaying the $20 million loan.

In a Friday vote, Tri-Rail’s 10-member board — a mixture of local elected officials and members appointed by the governor — unanimously signed off on the new plan to get the downtown Miami station built.

Board member Andrew Frey, a Gov. Rick Scott appointee, called it “very confusing” that the state isn’t going to be involved.

“I think there’s stronger words than confusing, but I won’t use ‘em,” Frey said. “I want this done, and that’s it.”

After the downtown station is up and running, Tri-Rail has long-term plans to continue adding stations going north along the FEC corridor near U.S. 1 — traveling through the Design District, Aventura, downtown Hollywood, and ultimately all the way up to Jupiter in Palm Beach County.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...#storylink=cpy

[electricron]

Originally Posted by bobdreamz

Even without the state’s help, Tri-Rail officials have found a way to finally bring the commuter trains directly to downtown Miami.

Thanks to some last-minute legal maneuvering — and Tri-Rail’s decision on Friday to borrow money to close a $20 million funding gap — plans for a downtown Miami station are now once again chugging along.

This is great news !
Of course no thanks to the FLorida Legislature who would have let this project die !

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...#storylink=cpy

Why do proponents always suggest when a legislature is unwilling to sink more and more money into any transportation project as an act to kill it? If the project is worthy enough, the locals usually find a way to get that project financed anyways. So the refusal by a legislature or congress isn't an act to kill any project after all, but I will admit it that makes it harder to finance the project easily. There are many rail projects that have been financed with just local funding, add this one to that list.

[eleven=11]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

given the low quality of florida's political class, it's pretty surprising anything gets done.

yeah.

[bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by electricron

Why do proponents always suggest when a legislature is unwilling to sink more and more money into any transportation project as an act to kill it? If the project is worthy enough, the locals usually find a way to get that project financed anyways. So the refusal by a legislature or congress isn't an act to kill any project after all, but I will admit it that makes it harder to finance the project easily. There are many rail projects that have been financed with just local funding, add this one to that list.

Fair question.

So what do you consider what the Florida Legislature did knowing that all funding is in place to have a Commuter Rail system like Tri-Rail (which is 27 years old) to be able to build into a new train station platform by a privately funded train system like All Aboard Florida's BrightLine's into downtown Miami project and not act on it?

It's basically killing a transportation infrastructure by non-action.

Knowing that to get an amendment onto a transportation bill that would clarify who would be liable when a passenger train crashes on railway shared by public and private trains. But the bill passed without the amendment, which they had said was critical, since their link requires using the Florida East Coast Railway, a private line.

They did the same thing to SunRail with CSX when SunRail was being established except they had time whereas Tri-Rail was being pressured to have this "Insurance indemnification" issue resolved since without it's resolution they would have missed the opportunity to have two platforms in downtown Miami @ Miami's Central Station.

We have a Governor who is anti-Rail hence his rejection of HSR funds from Obama and a Republican legislature who also feels the same way.

Thankfully Tri-Rail managed to find a solution to this problem so forgive me if I feel our state Government is not responsive to Urban public transport in it's major metro in the state.

[bobdreamz]

Published on Jun 21, 2016

Take the tour of Tri-Rail's Downtown Miami Link route through this Google Earth simulation. The route begins just south of the Metrorail Transfer Station, where Tri-Rail trains will access the FEC tracks via the IRIS connection.
The route terminates at BrightLine's Miami Central Station, which is currently under construction. The area where Miami Central will be located is highlighted in orange.
Tri-Rail service into MiamiCentral Station is expected by late 2017.

• Video Link

[a very long weekend]

very cool.

i saw on exmiami that there's a preliminary route for the lrt to miami beach:
http://www.thenextmiami.com/prelimin...i-south-beach/

[eleven=11]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

very cool.

i saw on exmiami that there's a preliminary route for the lrt to miami beach:
http://www.thenextmiami.com/prelimin...i-south-beach/

because this is Tri-Rail news Forum/Thread.......
half of Tri-rail trains go to MIA airport station and
the other half go to new downtown miami BriteLine station