Tri-Rail seeks development along tracks to build revenue
Even while Tri-Rail last week was undertaking long-awaited tests of an 8-mile stretch of tracks to be able to bring its passenger trains for the first time into downtown Miami, its executive director was telling transportation planners that the rail line has a long way to go in other directions too.
One of those directions is strictly business. The government-owned line that serves three counties, said David Dech, has to look to its income, and that means many improvements are needed.
“We need to be able to encourage investment along our lines,” he told the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization in his introductory visit to the board’s meeting. “We need to be able to get transit-oriented development along our lines so we can figure out how to bring in additional revenues.”
So as Tri-Rail plans to start with a clean slate downtown, it had to clean up elsewhere, he said.
When he interviewed for the job to direct the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, Mr. Dech said, he and his wife boarded a Tri-Rail for the airport and she saw the train for the first time. “There was such a look of disappointment,” he said.
So when he climbed aboard, the cleanup began. “We have replaced almost 500 windows from our rolling stock,” he said. “We have removed over 450 tons of debris from the right-of-way. We’re working with county homeless advocates to find safer places for people who don’t have homes to live.
“Part of this is because it’s good business. Part of this is we need to be good neighbors, and that’s one of the things I think we haven’t been.”
In other steps forward, Tri-Rail is looking at bicycle and scooter parking at all of its Miami-Dade County locations, said county Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who is also the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority’s chairman and a Transportation Planning Authority board member. Mr. Dech, she said, is also working on a plan to offer a $5 coupon for anyone taking an Uber at a Tri-Rail station.
Last week’s tests of tracks leading from Hialeah to downtown Miami are a required step in bringing Tri-Rail downtown to the MiamiCentral Station.
That station now serves Brightline, a privately operated railway that also runs from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach counties but is headed toward service as far as Orlando.
There is no firm date yet for Tri-Rail to serve downtown Miami.
MiamiCityMan
June 28, 2023 at 12:21 pm
Thank God for the wife then. Because otherwise Tri-Rail professionals wouldn’t know what good service is?
Gal
June 28, 2023 at 4:51 pm
Oh, sure, his wife is probably used to travel business jet, not rail. “She was disappointed, so let’s organize more useless tax money wasting projects”
Tom
June 29, 2023 at 1:13 am
Miami metro is getting /has the population density required for Mass transit . Go through the checklists to get it up to par and advertise…
Angelo Gonzalez
June 29, 2023 at 10:56 am
I have worked on many multifamily projects in large cities with rail service. Transit Oriented Development is a major necessity in a city with growing lower and middle income population. If you need help, feel free to tap me for help. I just want the city to move in the right direction.
Paul C
June 29, 2023 at 11:03 am
There is not any service operating East/West. I would suggest adding tracks/service to transport those of us further away from the coast line. Perhaps a loop which could connect with the main line.
Billy
June 29, 2023 at 4:35 pm
Tri Rail is totally unsafe and dirty!!!!!!
Jesus
June 29, 2023 at 9:17 pm
This is a vast metropolitan region that goes from Jupiter/Tequesta to Homestead/Florida City. This metro region needs to be interconnected by a robust mass transit and Tri-Rail is the backbone of that three-county region. But we need more, and each county must develop efficient transit to transport its citizens within their jurisdiction but also to feed projects like Tri-Rail. This great Metro Region will be incomplete until it gave a robust and efficient mass transit system