South Florida East Coast Corridor

[ftlauddude]

South Florida East Coast Corridor/Tri-Rail/All Aboard Florida



http://www.sfeccstudy.com/

[ftlauddude]

Cities to be asked to finance commuter rail

By Lou Ortiz

Cities along the route of the proposed South Florida East Coast Corridor commuter rail line will be asked to contribute to help finance the venture, officials say.

"A key component is some funding from the cities where there will be station stops," said Steven Abrams, newly elected chairman of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority. This is a request to the cities, not the counties," he said. "There is a real economic benefit tied to the request."

The commuter service from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties would run more than 50 trains daily, with stops in 22 stations along the way. The cities include Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach and Jupiter. The completed project is expected to relieve congestion in the downtowns of the cities and enhance east-west and north-south connections.

Those connections include all modes of transportation, from Tri Rail and Metrorail and tri-county bus services to intrastate rail connection from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach to Orlando, a private development by All Aboard Florida. The All Aboard Florida service is designed for tourists and business travelers. The 240-mile Orlando service is to be 100% privately funded, with completion expected in 2014, its developers say.
Mr. Abrams said the daily eastern commuter corridor project would also seek federal funding, but just as important would be generating revenue from mixed-use developments — retail, office space and residential — at stations along the route that could accommodate such projects. "Mixed-use development on the eastern corridor," he said, "would be a real value for the station sites for all the cities along the way." But Mr. Abrams said development might not be conducive for some stations along the route. That would depend on the availability of land, among other things.

During a July meeting of the Miami-Dade County Metropolitan Planning Organization, state officials involved with the corridor project said that later this year ridership numbers are to be known for the new commuter service, along with potential funding and a strategy for driving the project ahead. "My priority is to start train service on the eastern track," said Mr. Abrams, adding that all that is needed is to "finalize a workable plan." A timetable to chug ahead would follow a huddle and agreement on a plan among the Florida Department of Transportation, the Regional Transportation Authority [RTA] and the South Florida East Corridor, among others. "But we want to present possibilities to them," Mr. Abrams said. "We have the capability of administering train service on the eastern track without disruption or adding more bureaucracy. We've developed a plan that would provide service through all the downtowns. The RTA once had a very elaborate and costly plan to put service on the eastern line," he said. "We found a way to simplify it, and now it's time to implement it."

http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/120816/story1.shtml

[miami305]

This would be so awesome!

[xerxesjc28]

So this would be in addition to Tri-Rail, or could this perhaps be a replacement? Would it make sense if this plan went ahead to have both Tri-Rail and this new rail service?

[tampasteve]

Originally Posted by xerxesjc28

So this would be in addition to Tri-Rail, or could this perhaps be a replacement? Would it make sense if this plan went ahead to have both Tri-Rail and this new rail service?

Right now they are positioning it as complementary.

From their website:

Q: Won't passenger service on the FEC service just duplicate Tri-Rail service?

Transit along the FEC alignment will ultimately link to and enhance Tri-Rail service with stops closer to where people live and work. Using travel forecast models, the study will analyze the best ways to join the two services so they could operate as an interconnected system. People who presently ride Tri-Rail are generally long-distance commuters who arrive at stations by car, bus or shuttle. Transit along the FEC route has the potential of servicing shorter trips as well, within walking distance of future transit stations, municipal downtown's along the corridor and major activity centers such as hospitals and universities.

Q: Where would the Tri-Rail/FEC connections be?

The study team is analyzing connections in Miami, Pompano Beach, and West Palm Beach.

http://www.sfeccstudy.com/faq.html#Q10

Steve

[brickell]

It's really too bad they're not able to run tri rail around the airport and into south and west dade.

[DGM]

Too many NIMBYs around the South Dade route, but the idea has been championed by Joe Martinez, and is certainly feasible. Maybe if the Tri-Rail corridor starts to look too appealing for Kendall residents there will be a groundswell in support that can drown out the NIMBYs.

[FTL Beach Bum]

From 2011.

[mr jones]

Video = http://vimeo.com/43140977

Downtown Miami On Track For Expanded Commuter Rail Service By 2014

The Huffington Post | By Joey Francilus
Posted: 10/25/2012 3:47 pm EDT Updated: 10/25/2012 3:57 pm EDT


A half-century after the last passenger trains pulled into Downtown Miami, plans to return rail transport to South Florida's urban corridors are moving at breakneck pace.
At least 24,000 riders would use a proposed new commuter rail line between Jupiter and Downtown Miami, reports Miami Today.

The line lies along Florida East Coast Railway's US 1 corridor tracks, which the company plans to use for its upcoming Miami-to-Orlando All Aboard Florida rail service.

Longtime South Florida commuter service Tri-Rail, which currently makes its southernmost stop near Hialeah, is hoping to utilize FEC's Downtown track for a new eastern "Blue Line," pending municipal cooperation toward station development.

Both companies have expressed mutual willingness to share the FEC tracks. All Aboard Florida would service significantly fewer stations along the corridor than Tri-Rail, which plans to add 12 new stops between Fort Lauderdale and Miami for Blue Line service:



"Transit along the FEC route has the potential of servicing shorter trips as well, within walking distance of future transit stations, municipal downtowns along the corridor and major activity centers such as hospitals and universities," according to the SFECC project website.

Tri-Rail's proposed Blue Line would utilize existing rolling stock to operate between West Palm Beach's Mangonia Park station and downtown Miami's Stephen P. Clark Government Center as soon as 2015, officials say.

Meanwhile, FEC is moving steadily toward their All Aboard Florida service, slated to provide three-hour train travel between Orlando and downtown Miami by 2014.

An estimated 200 miles of track is already prepped for All Aboard service, with FEC hiring respected Chicago-based architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to construct stations including a new hub in Downtown Miami.

"SOM is renowned for its inspiring, award‐winning design, strong track record of fostering public consensus, and ability to translate infrastructure investment into regional benefits," remarked FEC president Vincent Signorello at the announcement.

Preliminary plans include a cross-platform terminus adjoining Miami's Government Center on FEC-owned parking lots east of Metrorail trackage on Northwest First Avenue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...#slide=1682569

[bale002]

So are they going to build the stations outside, like way outside, the main part of the towns where no real human being wants to go in first person, just cars, like they did with the TriRail (with partial exception of West Palm Beach station)?

And are they going to install train carriage quality whose not-so-subtle message is that the project is designed to fail from the get-go?

We've heard this multi-use propaganda before, let's see if SOM can do any better than the clunkheads here have so far.

[ftlauddude]

Originally Posted by bale002

So are they going to build the stations outside, like way outside, the main part of the towns where no real human being wants to go in first person, just cars, like they did with the TriRail (with partial exception of West Palm Beach station)?

And are they going to install train carriage quality whose not-so-subtle message is that the project is designed to fail from the get-go?

We've heard this multi-use propaganda before, let's see if SOM can do any better than the clunkheads here have so far.

Do you know where the FEC tracks are? THEY GO THROUGH ALL DOWNTOWNS...What train carriage quality with not-so-subtle message? What multi-use propaganda? Some people just talk non-sense without even investigating a little bit...

[bale002]

Originally Posted by ftlauddude

Do you know where the FEC tracks are? THEY GO THROUGH ALL DOWNTOWNS...What train carriage quality with not-so-subtle message? What multi-use propaganda? Some people just talk non-sense without even investigating a little bit...

Do you remember the airplane joke?

Yes, I used to live very close to the FEC tracks.

Let me interpret the sarcasm for you, since you seem to have a problem with basic comprehension.

I think it is a great idea, actually too good to be true, however I have little confidence that they will implement it properly and in a timely manner. Certainly already too late for me.

I have commuted on trains in various countries throughout the world, and the Trirail trains are among the worst in terms of design, both aesthetics and practicality.

The Trirail system does not live up to potential - otherwise we wouldn't be here talking about an alternative one only relatively few years since it has been in existence, would we? - and the design of the carriages is a scowling reflection of that, at least in my view.

Better luck this time around, I really do hope that it is a success!

[ftlauddude]

Blah blah blah. It's not a matter of sarcasm or comprehension; some people here tend to talk crap about the few things that makes us a civilized city and they've never riden the system in the fist place...

[xerxesjc28]

Be nice now, also, sarcasm can sometimes be hard to figure out if it is written, it is much easier to figure out when spoken.

If this new train service runs often, on time, and not too expensive, I am wondering if it could have quite a lot of use, more than expected. Those are some pretty dense areas with good local transit that it would go through, and there are a lot of people who might want to travel through out those areas.

Also, the main reason, that I think that transit is not to used in South Florida has to do simply with not enough options. This new line will be a great addition towards getting as much transit coverage over the whole South Florida region.

If this new line along with the semi-HSR from Miami-Orlando gets built, I would say most of the North-South transit necessities would have been fulfilled. The biggest gap's have to deal with East to West connections in our region now. Both Miami-Dade and Broward need to be able to get lines that take people from where they live (the western part of the counties) to where they work and play, the coastal areas.

So my question to you guys is this, are there any old rail lines or areas that are empty where rail lines of any type (light,heavy,elevated) could be built in Dade or Broward that go from East to West? This would greatly help lower cost of having to buy and destroy homes and businesses to lay down tracks which would be similar to this new line that is planned to be built.

[DGM]

If this new train service runs often, on time, and not too expensive, I am wondering if it could have quite a lot of use, more than expected.

I was actually thinking the same thing. The FEC Corridor Tri-Rail would be in a lot of ways like the Caltrain in San Francisco. The Florida train would have more stops, be longer, and run through more dense areas than the Caltrain. The Caltrain gets over 40,000 passengers per weekday. I think the one missing element, the thing that would keep the FEC Corridor from reaching Caltrain ridership levels, is the current lack of jobs in the downtown business districts. If there ever is an office tower boom in South Florida, I think it will be focused around the FEC Corridor, though.

[CF221]

Originally Posted by xerxesjc28

Be nice now, also, sarcasm can sometimes be hard to figure out if it is written, it is much easier to figure out when spoken.

If this new train service runs often, on time, and not too expensive, I am wondering if it could have quite a lot of use, more than expected. Those are some pretty dense areas with good local transit that it would go through, and there are a lot of people who might want to travel through out those areas.

Also, the main reason, that I think that transit is not to used in South Florida has to do simply with not enough options. This new line will be a great addition towards getting as much transit coverage over the whole South Florida region.

If this new line along with the semi-HSR from Miami-Orlando gets built, I would say most of the North-South transit necessities would have been fulfilled. The biggest gap's have to deal with East to West connections in our region now. Both Miami-Dade and Broward need to be able to get lines that take people from where they live (the western part of the counties) to where they work and play, the coastal areas.

So my question to you guys is this, are there any old rail lines or areas that are empty where rail lines of any type (light,heavy,elevated) could be built in Dade or Broward that go from East to West? This would greatly help lower cost of having to buy and destroy homes and businesses to lay down tracks which would be similar to this new line that is planned to be built.

I think that there's enough space on Miami's wide east-west roads to install some kind of light rail. Right now we are being given a BRT alternative, that, although a welcome alternative, will not pass through areas such as Flagami, that are in dire need of transportation options. Also, it is taking a veeeery long time for it to appear (they've been talking about it for years I think, and still they haven't started the works).

I really think that we're in a point in time and space where our traffic has just run wild. Not only are we trying to solve traffic by making bigger and larger roads and continuing to allow suburban sprawl inside our UDB , but we also have had multiple incidences of deaths just in a week, which really tell about the danger of driving and walking on Miami roads. If our politicians really wanted to provide the public transportation that they say they want to give us, then they would have already done so. Then again, we are the ones that choose with our vote.

[xerxesjc28]

Originally Posted by CF221

I think that there's enough space on Miami's wide east-west roads to install some kind of light rail. Right now we are being given a BRT alternative, that, although a welcome alternative, will not pass through areas such as Flagami, that are in dire need of transportation options. Also, it is taking a veeeery long time for it to appear (they've been talking about it for years I think, and still they haven't started the works).

I was actually thinking the same thing. Flagler, Calle Ocho, s.w. 88th street are all more than wide enough for a light rail line to be built. Only thing is, it would have to be ROW (due to massive traffic jams which would slow the system too much during rush hours), which would mean taking "precious" road space from cars, and just thinking about the anger that would arise from doing that could scare politicians from doing this.

[CalleOchoGringo]

SW 8th St West of Palmetto is wide enough to put a canal, a runway, and several football fields in the middle with room to spare. Kidding of course, but way over size/capacity compared to the rest of the streets (or even SW 8th St EAST of Palmetto).

But really that's the problem isn't it. Almost all of these E-W roads are way overbuilt out west (where they are relatively new), and way too narrow for the traffic out east (where they were built in Miami's infancy). I say just build the damn LRT on one of them screw the drivers. Any congestion caused by taking away lanes will more than be made up for by removing drivers from roadways and putting them in those trains. Both 8th and Flagler are good candidate roads because they can run all the way into CBD/brickell (respectively) without needing to turn N-S to do so.

Then later maybe an LRT line from Kendall drive to Dadeland North.

[CF221]

I agree. I think these streets are the easiest places to start a great transportation system in the first place. They are wide, they are heavily populated with many different combination of demographics around them. They are choking with traffic. As you also mentioned, they also run E-W with no major turns N or S. They would also connect Downtown Miami with the heavily populated commercial areas of Flagler, as well as with Florida International University, arguably a very smart and potentially successful route. Now, if only we started to make this Light Rail line a reality....

[ftlauddude]

I think that SFRTA should use the spur that goes west parallel to SR 836 (Dolphin Xway). There should be stations in Blue Lagoon, somewhere by NW 87th Ave, and one close to the Dolphin Mall.