More Tri-Rail Trains Mean Fewer Delays

By Commissioner Koons

If you have never used Tri-Rail because it seemed the trains were always running late, I have good news. In late March, double-tracking of the 71-mile Tri-Rail corridor was completed – all except for a two-mile stretch in Broward. The $333.8-million four-year project was funded by the Federal Transit Administration, the Florida Department of Transportation, as well as Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The parallel tracks enable Tri-Rail to now run 40 weekday trains (up from 30). These extra trains, arranged by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), represent a 33 percent increase in weekday service, and just in time for the anticipated summer surge in gasoline prices.

Because Tri-Rail trains no longer have to pull off to side to allow others to pass, on-time performance should be enhanced. For example, the time it takes to ride from Mangonia Park, the northernmost Tri-Rail stop to the Miami International Airport station, the southernmost stop, has been reduced by nine minutes to one hour and 50 minutes. Folks, you probably couldn’t drive there much faster on I-95 on a weekday, and you don’t have to worry about parking.

As part of the new schedule, some trains will operate on 20-minute schedules during rush-hour and every hour during the rest of the day. Weekends have been improved too, with Saturday and Sunday trains operating every two hours. There will be 16 trains on Saturday, and 14 trains on Sunday, an increase of two trains each per day, to fill a service gap in the middle of the day.

The additional service comes just in time to provide convenient, reliable transportation to two of South Florida’s biggest outdoor events -- SunFest and the Air and Sea Show, both scheduled for the first weekend in May.

I hope you will take advantage of our improved Tri-Rail system. Save yourself the aggravation of rush-hour gridlock, and let us do the driving.

For additional information, or to obtain a copy of the new schedule, please call 1-800-TRI-RAIL (874-7245) or log onto www.tri-rail.com

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