Tri-Rail trains finally ready to roll into Miami, seven years later than planned
Tri-Rail says its trains will finally take passengers into downtown Miami later this month, launching commuter rail service that was originally supposed to start seven years ago.
The tax-funded and cheaper alternative to Brightline’s trains on the I-95 corridor, Tri-Rail said Friday it plans to debut its Miami depot on Saturday, Jan. 13. That’s when Tri-Rail trains would begin running from shared space in Brightline’s downtown complex to a regular Tri-Rail stop at an existing transit station in Hialeah already used by Tri-Rail and Metrorail.
“The day has finally arrived,” said Raquel Regalado, a Miami-Dade County commissioner and Tri-Rail board member who helped push out the agency’s former director over delays with the Miami service. “We have worked through many challenges.”
Multiple delays held up the launch, including the 2021 discovery that the platform Brightline built in its downtown depot for Tri-Rail was slightly too wide for the Tri-Rail trains.
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Within two months, Tri-Rail’s director at the time, Steven Abrams, announced his resignation, citing a rift with Regalado and other board members.
While country Metrorail trains already run the same route, the Tri-Rail “Downtown Link” will be the first with express service. But commuters will have to wait for the one-seat ride from West Palm Beach to Miami that Tri-Rail had pitched when the project launched.
David Dech, Tri-Rail’s executive director since last summer, said logistics are too complicated to have Tri-Rail trains continue onto Miami from their regular routes. Instead, passengers will need to leave their regular trains and get on a Miami-bound train at no additional charge, then repeat the process for the return trip.
“This is the way to logistically make this happen,” Dech said of the launch of the delayed service. He said once Tri-Rail gets a sense of passenger demand and other details, the plan is to add some express trains that could offer the one-seat ride from West Palm Beach to Miami. “There are a lot of moving parts,” he said.
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Tri-Rail, funded with a mix of federal state and local dollars and run by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, currently ends its Miami-Dade service south of the Hialeah station at Miami International Airport. Tri-Rail Passengers wanting to head downtown currently transfer to Metrorail in the Hialeah station, so the new option allows them to make the trip in a second Tri-Rail train.
Local governments spent $43 million to help build the Miami Tri-Rail depot in the Brightline complex under a 2015 deal between Miami and Miami-Dade. At the time, Tri-Rail said Miami service would begin in March 2017.
Brightline runs its for-profit trains east of I-95, along U.S. 1. Tri-Rail stations are mostly west of I-95. While a Brightline trip to West Palm Beach can cost a Miami rider $24, Tri-Rail charges about $9.
The Miami station also positions Tri-Rail to potentially extend northern service on the east side of I-95 as well, but with far more local stops than Brightline offers. Brightline is negotiating with Miami-Dade to use the private tracks it runs trains on for a new county-funded commuter service with five stops between Miami and Aventura.
While Brightline would collect revenue from track rental fees, company representatives have said another entity would operate the “Coastal Link” rail line, with Tri-Rail a likely candidate.
Regalado said Tri-Rail is better prepared to draw riders from Miami than it would have been several years ago, with spruced up train exteriors and more offerings at stations.
“Delay is never good,” she said. “But we made the most of it.”
