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Front Page » Transportation » Metrorail leg to north could depend on state, federal funds

Metrorail leg to north could depend on state, federal funds

Written by on January 14, 2020
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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Metrorail leg to north could depend on state, federal funds

Whether Metrorail rolls northward could depend on state and federal fund pledges, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez says.

His office last year drafted a request for proposals (RFP) for 9.5 miles through Miami Gardens known as the North Corridor in the county Smart Plan, he said in a Jan. 7 memo.

But the RFP for the “design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance” of a transit mode for the corridor, ordered Sept. 4 by commissioners, hasn’t gone out to bid.

Instead, he said, it’s been revised based on comments from state transportation personnel and could change again if that would attract more matching funds.

“Prior to the issuance of the RFP, it is important to secure and understand funding commitments or options,” he said.

The county, he said, is now in talks with the Federal Transit Administration to see if the project, as described in the draft RFP, qualifies for federal New Starts grants.

New Starts-eligible projects, the federal website says, are fixed-guideway transit systems costing $300 million or more to build or seeking more than $100 million in aid.

“Additionally, we have approached [the state] to determine what their funding participation will be,” he said. “Once these questions have been addressed, [staff] will be prepared to issue the RFP.”

Miami-Dade’s transportation planning board on Oct. 31 unanimously endorsed elevated rail for the North Corridor, a $1.9 billion line along Northwest 27th Avenue to Broward County.

It was the third approval of a transit mode for one of the six Smart corridors targeted in 2016 as needing upgrades.

The board voted 15-7 Aug. 30 for a $300 million rapid-transit bus line on the 20-mile South Corridor from Kendall to Florida City. Less than two months later, commissioners OK’d a $76 million station for Brightline, which plans to run the Northeast Corridor between downtown Miami and Aventura.

6 Responses to Metrorail leg to north could depend on state, federal funds

  1. BFW

    January 15, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    The existing Metrorail has worse delays with the “New” trains as witnessed by the HOURS long delay caused by wagon #308 TODAY. The DBOM will go to MCM and company even after the FIU debacle. The $76 million for Virgin, could have been used to fix the Aecom inspired design flaws of the Hitachi Trains. Oh well, business as usual…..

  2. Anonymous

    January 16, 2020 at 10:15 am

    Wouldn’t count one bright line station in aventura as serving the northeast corridor. I live in the corridor and driving to Downtown would be quicker than driving to aventura then taking the train down, we need trirail or something else.

  3. linda

    January 16, 2020 at 9:57 pm

    It seems like no one cares about SW Miami Dade. Only the NW.There would be less traffic if they had extended the metrorail to Florida city as originally planned. Fast buses instead is not a good idea. We have buses like 38 and 34 that are express during certain times.

  4. David

    January 17, 2020 at 2:31 pm

    Once again the fastest growing corridor in Miami-Dade (SW) gets shunned. No one is getting out of their cars to get on buses! Be a real city and GO with the original SMART PLAN (N corridor, NE corridor, Beach corridor, E/W corridor, Kendall corridor, and South corridor.)

  5. TransitDave

    January 17, 2020 at 4:41 pm

    Probably ain’t gonna happen, because the farebox recovery ratio for MDT is so low. That’s what killed every metrorail extension project for the last 30 years or so.

  6. Gregory

    March 17, 2020 at 11:48 am

    The “Miami” metrorail going to Broward County. Yeah…cuz that makes sense when we’re trying to solve the Miami-Dade traffic crisis. Makes all the sense in the world especially when we already have express buses, Tri-Rail, anddddd Brightline heading back and forth to Broward and beyond. What is up with this idiocy? For years and years (and years) we’ve advocated a rail from Homestead, Weschester, and Aventura. Let’s just skip all that and add ANOTHER rail to and from Broward County being the two under-used rails just aren’t enough. So much for being smart for SMART Plan.

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