Amtrak derails decades of deals to serve Miami International Airport
Amtrak, now eight years late pulling its first train into a station built to its specifications at Miami International Airport, has finally set a firm arrival date: never.
In a short letter, the National Railroad Passenger Corp. stunned transportation officials who had been negotiating final details of Amtrak’s station lease by saying that running its Miami trains as far as the airport would cost too much.
Just label Amtrak’s Silver Meteor and Silver Star the Hialeah Express. That’s the official end of the line, now and into the future.
That decision comes 27 years after Amtrak and the Florida Department of Transportation signed an agreement that was a pillar of the decision to build the Miami Intermodal Center at the airport and to build out the Amtrak station that has sat empty for eight years awaiting its first train.
As recently as July the state responded to an email regarding the railroad’s terms to begin the service. The state said, essentially, let’s go as soon as we update the original 1997 contract. Instead, Amtrak pulled the plug.
At its Dec. 18 meeting, the county’s Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust had scheduled a simple status report about how soon Amtrak trains would arrive. Instead, Ana Quero, rail administration manager for the state transportation department, told trust members that trains aren’t coming and she will return to relate what other use the state can dream up for a railway hub it build for phantom Amtrak trains.
“We had been getting updates and in every update it was talking about negotiating the final verbiage and a lease, because it was built out for Amtrak, and we were talking about making headway and we were talking about arms for gates where there was crossing traffic, and all of those things had been worked out, and so it’s really kind of shocking when I got the one-page forget-about-it” letter from Amtrak, said Robert Wolfarth, chairman of the transportation trust.
“The whole purpose of the MIC [Miami Intermodal Center] was to get all these different kinds of transportation modes together,” said Mr. Wolfarth, citing Metrorail, bus operators and a rental car center, “and Amtrak was supposed to be part of it.”
“We jointly evaluated use of the MIC to support Amtrak’s long-distance intercity passenger rail network,” wrote Jim Blair, AVP host railroads for Amtrak. “As we recently reported, that evaluation is now complete, and has concluded that it is currently not feasible to divert Amtrak long-distance trains … to the MIC, as our southern terminus.”
Instead, he wrote, “Amtrak will advance our alternative plan … at the current Hialeah site. That work is expected to begin in spring 2025 and continue through at least June 2028.”
Mr. Wolfarth asked what recourse the trust has. “We could pass a resolution urging our congressional representatives to speak with the incoming administration to see if there might be a change in philosophy,” suggested Executive Director Javier Betancourt. Members said they’d talk with congressmen.
While the trust didn’t use sales surtax receipts for the Amtrak station at the airport, Mr. Betancourt noted that when it was found that Amtrak trains were too long to enter the station without disrupting traffic, the state transportation department spent $5.6 million to reconstruct Northwest 28th Street, created a new bypass road and added a signalized intersection to make Amtrak’s use feasible.
T. Bourke
December 30, 2024 at 12:42 pm
Leave it to Amtrak or the state of fla!! The 2 Miami trains refuse to go any further than 79st in Hialeah, and on the other end of things? Amtrak is restarting the previously abandoned mobile Al. to new Orleans line again, but the state refuses to get a train out of Tallahassee to go through the panhandle to join up with it so you can have service to new Orleans. Unbelievable! Yet Amtrak is getting all these other trains going all over the rest of. The country!!!
David
December 31, 2024 at 8:54 am
Right on point. The Stare of Florida DOT and the legislature could easily make it feasible for Amtrak to continue trains to the airport.
Carl Espo
December 30, 2024 at 12:44 pm
There is no longer a Silver Star. Look it up.
CB
December 30, 2024 at 4:41 pm
It is temporarily replaced with the “Floridian,” which is operating thru to Chicago without any transfer in D.C.
Moe
December 30, 2024 at 5:26 pm
It’s replacement of the Silver Star temporary. The Star will return and the Floridian will be a thing of the past. Give or take a few years.
Kent W
January 2, 2025 at 5:57 pm
Yup, it’s the Floridian to Washington, and now Chicago instead of New York. It Sort of runs on the same schedule to Wash. Westbound it does the old Capital Limited’s work.
P Mason
December 30, 2024 at 1:01 pm
Wow that’s a bummer
Gabe
December 30, 2024 at 1:17 pm
So, my question is: After Amtrak’s 8 misleading years, which were based on the original deals, where we used tax payers’ funds to accommodate for their operational requirements, are they going to reimburse Miami-Dade county for the $$$ that were invested on said infrastructure or are the citizens going going to have to eat it all? Is it another wasted scam project where only a few benefited from the failed deal?
Grady Muhammad
December 30, 2024 at 1:25 pm
Sue Amtrak’s ass.
Tax payers money was wasted on this property.
Ken Bird
December 30, 2024 at 1:49 pm
Amtrak should not be allowed to dis this project.They are a creature of Congress and congress should mandate they honor the agreement.
Steven Vagnozzi
December 30, 2024 at 4:10 pm
The Silver Star has been replaced by the Floridian for the next few years.
Peter Chase
December 30, 2024 at 6:59 pm
Put Brightline in there.
Cory
December 30, 2024 at 8:08 pm
Amtrak doesn’t know how to make money or what customer service is. They just want the government hand out
Samuel Augustus Jennings
December 31, 2024 at 12:07 am
Amtrak Board of Misdirection
Thank God for Brightline!
Kent W
January 2, 2025 at 5:59 pm
Shh. Your right, but the bosses will get mad. 🙂
Albert
December 31, 2024 at 3:32 am
This is entirely FDOT’s fault. Amtrak has been clear since the issue of trains being too long became apparent: the NW 25th St crossing needs to be permanently closed. Crossing gates at 25th are not enough because it’s a terminus station and trains would spend considerably longer there than at thru-stations, so traffic needs to be permanently diverted to 28th. FDOT has insisted on doing everything but that and here we are. Amtrak is moving on to a different plan because they haven’t been given another choice.
Robert
December 31, 2024 at 10:54 am
Exactly. The MIC terminus could not have worked if FDOT didn’t make it viable. Amtrak didn’t really have a choice here.
Steve Davis
December 31, 2024 at 12:37 pm
Amtrak squanders more of the taxpayers dough putting off proposed projects, and studying them absolutely to death than they would make use of by actually starting up or extending existing routes. Wake up Amtrak!! Taxpayers have had enough. We want trains, and need ’em now. Not eight or ten years down the road.
Roy
December 31, 2024 at 9:32 pm
I thought that they tested a long train in the Intermodal station and it fit just fine with room to spare.
Perhaps they’re just castigating Florida and Miami Dade county taxpayers for not voting for Kamala.
Bring it to Trump’s attention. Let’s get it done.
Robert
January 1, 2025 at 8:46 am
The rail mafia strikes again. Taxpayers continue to get duped by these grandiose plans that never deliver. The contractors and politicians are off spending our money.
Jorge
January 2, 2025 at 4:14 pm
I don’t understand why in this country of ours, why we don’t have bullet trains going across this great country. I Europe and Asia they have incredible bullet trains, and we apparently have only in Florida. We should have a bullet train for ex NY to LA with stops along the way. A mystery to me