Miami-Dade and Broward are coordinating to simultaneously open both Northeast Corridor commuter rail from Miami to Aventura and its continuation up the coast into the heart of Broward County in a Coastal Link line, a new report revealed.
At the same time, the counties expect within four months to pick an operating entity to run the rail line. That entity would then choose what group will operate the trains, the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust learned last week.
Timing is crucial, because trains must be ordered by year’s end to be built and rolling by the planned opening in the second quarter of 2032, Gabriella Serrado, chief of infrastructure planning for Miami-Dade’s transit operations, reported to the trust, which must ultimately approve the local spending.
Earlier reports had said Broward would trail Miami-Dade’s opening by about a year, but Ms. Serrado said the gap might evaporate.
“They (Broward) are trying to complete their project development plans, which we were at about a year ago,” she said. “They want to get to engineering [where Miami-Dade is now] so we can open at least the south side of the system at the same time, by 2032.”
That would be the first segment of a 85-mile Coastal Link commuter rail connecting Miami-Dade with Broward and Palm Beach counties. In Miami-Dade, the line aims to leverage the existing rail corridor shared with Brightline and Florida East Coast Railway freight trains.
The aim is to integrate the Miami Central and West Aventura stations while adding five new ones, directly connecting Wynwood, the Design District, Little Haiti, North Miami, and FIU’s North Campus.
Trust member Miguel Murphy raised the issue of station spacing that leaves out Barry University and Miami Dade College’s North Campus, asking whether another stop can be slipped into plans.
“Not at this time,” Ms. Serrado replied, because the Federal Transit Administration has approved the current plan. “We know that that is a gap,” she said, raising a hope that once Congress fully funds the line the county can dig deeper to see “where we can find the proper space.”
Ms. Serrado said rail coaches that will be ordered will be double-decked, much as Tri-Rail trains are. Estimates are the service would carry 4.5 million passengers at opening and hit a peak of 6.3 million.
Miami-Dade last December requested information seeking entities to take full charge to operate the Coastal Link and got “a few” replies, Ms. Serrado said, without naming any. She said her department is working with Broward seeking a mechanism to choose that operating entity.
That entity would form an agency board that would set policies for the railway including security, maintenance, and everything that deals with procuring rail vehicles and selecting an operator. Operators discussed informally to work under that board have included public operator Tri-Rail, private railway Brightline and its owners, and the county transportation department.
Plans for the Northeast Corridor rolled ahead rapidly after the Federal Transit Administration last June announced that the line could receive up to $389.5 million in US funds. Capital cost is estimated at $927.3 million. The federal grants would account for 42% of that. The Florida Department of Transportation has committed $200 million, or 22%, with the remainder from the People’s Transportation Plan that the transportation trust administers.
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