A place in the sun for rail: Tri-Rail is double-tracking and Miami Metrorail is again in motion

Railway Age, May, 2004 by Luther S. Miller

Florida has not always turned a warm face to passenger rail. The Sunshine State is, in fact, a graveyard of some worthy regional and intercity rail initiatives. A recent casualty at the polls was a planned regional line in the Orlando area. And recent weeks have seen Gov. Jeb Bush pleading with the state's voters to overturn a mandate tier high speed rail that they voted in after Bush killed an earlier high speed rail project as one of his first acts in office.

But in South Florida, a different story is unfolding. Tri-Rail, one of the most innovative and successful commuter rail initiatives of the late 20th Century, is hauling an increasing passenger load in a 72-mile West Palm Beach Miami rail corridor which the state purchased from CSX far $264 million. Meanwhile, Tri-Rail's neighbor and connecting carrier, Miami-Dade Transit's 22-mile elevated Metrorail, is posting ridership gains. Both Tri-Rail and Metrorail are moving aggressively to upgrade and expand their operations.

Tri-Rail is far advanced in construction of a second main line track paralleling its existing track between Ft. Lauderdale and Pompano Beach on the former Seaboard Air Line. The cost, including new sighting, is $333 million, of which 77% is covered by a Federal Transit Administration full-funding grant. It's scheduled to be completed in May 2005, and none too soon. In February, Tri-Rail ridership hit a 10-year high, with an average of 10,151 passengers a day. On March 5, 11,152 riders boarded Tri-Rail trains, the railroad's busiest "non-event" day since March 28, 1984. Joe Guiletti, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), notes that these gains are all the more impressive because they came at a time of train delays due to construction.

Metrorail expansion is coming at a slower pace, though Miami Dade Transit Director Roosevelt Bradley told Railway Age last month that Metrorail mileage will double in the next 10 years as MDT implements key portions of the People's Transportation Plan. Miami-Dade voters overwhelmingly approved the plan 18 months ago; more important, they approved a half cent sales surtax to provide local matching funds. Bradley says completion of the initial segments "will take us to all points in Miami-Dade County." All together, the expansion program approved in November 2002 calls for 88.9 miles of rapid transit and a significantly increased bus fleet. (It's probable that dedicated busways--now known as "bus rapid transit"--will figure in the rapid transit expansion.)

Twenty years ago this month, Miami-Dade Metrorail opened the first segment of its Phase 1, billion-dollar elevated fine. A 50-mile system was envisioned at that time, but the money never materialized. Voters who were saying "yes" in public opinion surveys said "no" at the polls. That finally changed, says Bradley, when business and community leaders decided they could no longer afford the distinction of being one of the two or three most congested municipalities in the nation.

Early critics ridiculed Metrorail as "the railroad that doesn't go anywhere." Actually, it goes where close to 50,000 daily riders want to go, and the number is climbing, in last year's third quarter, the latest period for which the American Public Transportation Association has comparable statistics, Miami-Dade posted the highest ridership increase--3.5%--among the nation's 14 heavy rail transit systems. Only two others eked out an increase at all--Philadelphia's SEPTA, with 1.03%, and the Washington Metro, 0.42%. Metrorail Marketing Director Michael de Cossio points out that critics should bear in mind that rapid transit in Miami is not really a "system"--it's a line and probably the busiest single line heavy rail transit carrier in the country.

But Metrorail has its limitations. De Cossio says untapped demand is particularly strong in a western metropolitan sprawl that is now approaching Florida Everglades National Park.

The immediate emphasis is on the North Corridor and the East-West corridor. The North Corridor is a 9.5-mile heavy rail alternative running from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Metrorail Station to the Miami/Dade-Broward County line. Planned station stops are the North side Shopping Center, MDCC-North Campus, City of Opalocka, Palmetto Expressway, Carol City Shopping Center, ProPlayer Station, and Florida's Turnpike.

The East-West Corridor has two segments--one of six miles from the Florida Turnpike east to the Palmetto Expressway, and another running 11.21 miles from the Palmetto Expressway through Miami International Airport and downtown Miami to the Port of Miami.

MDT says the remaining 62.2 miles of planned lines include the priority 3.1-mile Earlington Heights extension; a 5.1-mile Baylink between Miami and South Miami Beach; a 15-mile Kendall Corridor with east west and north-south segments; a 13.6-mile Northeast Corridor from downtown Miami through Little Haiti to NE 215 Street, generally along Biscayne Blvd./US 1; a 21-mile rail extension along US 1 to Florida City in two segments; and a 4.5-mile extension from the Douglas Road Metrorail Station to the Miami Intermodal Station.