County adds Tri-Rail station to transit-oriented development aims

Written by Miami Today on September 24, 2025

County commissioners OK’d federal aid for a transportation-oriented development plan for five railway stations whose future is in doubt after Florida defunded its share of a Northeast Corridor rail line, while the county added a possible Tri-Rail station to the study.

Officials hailed the grant of $840,000 to fuel a $1.05 million project to support the planning.

“Even if that corridor were not to move forward, we think there’s a lot of learning to be had from that,” Jimmy Morales, the county’s chief operating officer, told commissioners.

The Northeast Corridor, using existing tracks shared with passenger line Brightline and Florida East Coast Railway freight trains, aims to integrate existing Miami Central and West Aventura stations while adding five new ones for Wynwood, the Design District, Little Haiti, North Miami, and FIU’s North Campus.

“I’m glad to see that we’re moving forward on something, because we were all a little nervous about it,” said Commissioner Raquel Regalado.
Before the state stripped out $200 million that was pivotal to the plan, completion was due in 2032. It was geared to be part of the Coastal Link, running from Miami to Palm Beach County.

The plan the grant will fund is aimed to promote transit-oriented development and mixed-use developments near transit stations, improve multimodal connectivity and pedestrian and bicycle access, enhance mobility and accessibility to key regional destinations, and foster public-private partnership opportunities.

Ms. Regalado, who also sits on the board of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operated the Tri-Rail commuter line, said that at Tri-Rail “we’re very supportive of the Northeast Corridor, but at the Design District … we don’t want to upset the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), but at the Design District, Tri-Rail does run by there.”

She cited a large recently approved development in Little River, where HueHub is to have 4,032 furnished residential units in seven 35-story towers.

“As you study the possibilities for transit-oriented development there,” she asked, “could you please consider a Tri-Rail station, because that could happen quickly, depending what happens with the other moving parts” – a reference to the slowed Northeast Corridor plan for a Coastal Link.

Mr. Morales agreed to add that Tri-Rail station option to the scope of the new study.

The $937 million budget for the 14-mile Miami-Dade leg of the Coastal Link from downtown Miami to Aventura relies in part on the money that the state dropped from its budget.