Unused Miami International Airport hub for Amtrak needs upgrades
A 5,355-square-foot building the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) completed more than a half-decade ago to Amtrak specifications is still shy a few renovations and one more thing: Amtrak.
The “beautiful building,” as it was described last week by several members of the county’s Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, has remained unused by Amtrak since its completion in 2016.
Called East Head House at the Miami Intermodal Center, the building has been mired in lease agreement discussions between Amtrak and the FDOT and multiple visits to the intermodal center by all parties.
As Miami Today reported last September, “trains … couldn’t enter the station” because “they were too long and disrupted traffic at the east side of the station.”
So, FDOT scurried to spend $5.6 million more, reconstructing, widening, milling and resurfacing Northwest 28th Street from just east of Northwest 42nd Avenue to Northwest 37th Avenue, Miami Today reported.
It also created a new bypass road from Northwest 25th Street to Northwest 37th Avenue, Miami Today reported, and constructed a new signalized intersection at Northwest 28th Street and Northwest 37th Avenue.
FDOT presented an update on the project to the transportation trust last week. The obvious question from trust members was, “When will it be ready to go?” The FDOT spokesperson did not have a definite answer.
The following milestones were offered:
■In February, a revised lease agreement was submitted to Amtrak for reviews and comments. Amtrak prepared to award a contract for proposed renovations and improvements. So much time has passed since the building was completed that the Americans with Disabilities Act has changed, requiring some ramp alterations.
In March, Amtrak coordinated with FDOT, the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, and the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority for March 24-26 site inspections.
Next steps?
■Amtrak awards the contract for renovations.
■Amtrak reviews the latest draft of the FDOT lease agreement.
■Non-FDOT agreements are to be entered by Amtrak before the East Head House is occupied.
All aboard?
Anon
April 6, 2023 at 1:55 pm
Welcome to Miami, a place that resembles more and more like Latin America.
Ronald Colbert
April 6, 2023 at 8:04 pm
Is it possible to keep both terminals? I travel to Miami at least twice a year. I don’t use the Airport. Thank you
Nathan
May 12, 2023 at 2:18 pm
Even if you don’t use the airport, the important thing to realize is that Tri-Rail and Metrorail use the same airport station. That’s where the idea came to move Amtrak there in the first place. Although now it seems the station was ill-designed in terms of the tracks, boarding area, and adjoining roads.
cpotisch
June 26, 2023 at 8:11 pm
No, that’s not possible. It’s impossible to get from one station to the other on this schedule.
Bill Hutchison
April 15, 2023 at 9:44 am
I was a part of a group that toured the MIC in 2016 just before it opened and three things immediately became apparent to me:
a) The tracks are too short for Amtrak trains, which are about ten cars and two locomotives vs. the usual 4 car/1 locomotive consists for Tri-Rail trains.
b) The station building for Amtrak passengers is also too same, being about the size of a gas station. Intercity passengers congregate in large groups before departures and need more in the way of a waiting area, ticketing and baggage facilities that Tri-Rail passengers, who just pass through.
c) The road and grade crossing at the north end of the station is at the throat of the tracks leading to the terminal. It should have been closed and road traffic rerouted.
The tracks should have been extended south and the waiting facilities built along the east side of the tracks or over them. Instead, we now have a facility which can’t handle the intended traffic despite many millions spent.
Those who designed and built the terminal should have taken a short ride to Amtrak’s station to see for themselves the length of the Amtrak trains and how passengers were handled. It looks to me as though they did not do that, leaving us where we are today.
As the warden in Cool Hand Luke said:
“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
And how.
MiamiCityMan
April 22, 2023 at 12:36 pm
Agree with the small size of the waiting room.
And since Amtrak boards like airplanes, you can’t find your seat on the train ahead of time.
Raidel Oviedo
April 17, 2023 at 9:49 pm
What I think it is even more shameful is that history repeated itself, too quickly I would say with Miami Central in downtown.
The lack of leadership in this city is astonishing. We will never be a world class city.