Tri-Rail chugging toward tri-county express trips
Tri-Rail is closing in on an express service with limited stops between downtown Miami and West Palm Beach, the first Tri-Rail into downtown where passengers won’t have to change trains.
The request for a single express train morning and night was on track for South Florida Regional Transportation Authority board action, executive director David Dech told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last week.
Service into downtown Miami finally arrived in January, seven years after its promised start, but with passenger changes for all trains at the Metrorail Transfer Station in Hialeah. The one-seat service with no changes that Mr. Dech envisions would help meet that promise.
Mr. Dech told the trust in February that he planned limited one-seat service soon, with all trains running without a change in three years.
Now he plans a “true one-seat ride going in and coming out, and also a new thing for us, which would be an express service with very limited stops,” he told the trust last week, depending on the board finding operating funds to run it.
The major barrier has been locomotives. Only some of Tri-Rail’s fleet are able to come into the Miami Central Station that Tri-Rail shares with privately operated Brightline. Four were ready in February, four more were being retrofitted, and others were to follow in a three-year process.
Almost riders 30,000 had used the Hialeah transfer, Mr. Dech said last week, with one-seat service after the Ultra Music Festival downtown complete with a DJ on board for entertainment.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dech explained, Tri-Rail has put kiosks outside of stations, has ambassadors to aid passengers, and is printing new signs and posters to guide riders in making sometimes-complex train transfers. “We are very much looking forward to when we do get our new public information signs at the transfer station, which will make the message much clearer.”
Sean
May 1, 2024 at 10:47 pm
Brightline just increased commuter passes to $1,400 per month for 40 rides. BL is pushing a few hundred riders off to make way for more revenue. I’d assume a fair amount will move to Tri-rail due to I95 traffic is unbearable. Express trains with no xfer would solve for the added time on Tri-rail.
Chuck
May 4, 2024 at 10:13 am
Why doesn’t TriRail immediately run 2 direct one seat trains per day Palm Beach to Miami Central? Why in earth are they holding off? It would be a perfect proof of concept.
Kath
May 7, 2024 at 10:54 pm
They should allow transfers btw the two systems then they’ll both see rider increases
Debbie Freeman
May 20, 2024 at 6:15 am
Please make the Express Train from WPB to Miami happen this summer. I have.been a Brightline commuter since the first. Train before Covid and the first train post Covid. With Brightline’s 250% increase for commuters …..it is either find a new job, retire or Tri Rail. I am committed to Tri Rail as I know most of the morning commuters would be if there were express trains.
M Smith
May 27, 2024 at 4:04 pm
Given that Brightline, a private FOR PROFIT corporation has increased its ticket prices and that Tri-Rail, a public entity which uses stat-owned tracks, it might be wise to promote an application for funding for additional passenger coaches and locomotives to alleviate traffic congestion on an expanded Interstate 95. That was the original mission of Tri-Rail at its start in 1989.