From Mitigation Measure to Transportation Necessity

This article describes the progress of South Florida’s Tri-Rail, a commuter service that began in 1989, and the difficulties it faces today with increased ridership and decreased funding. It provides a history of the commuter rail’s start up, its fast rise in ridership as the population grew, and its decision to double track segments of the railroad in 1995. What began with 28 trains a day on a single-track railroad now runs 50 trains daily as new bridges, stations and locomotives were added to the system. When ridership skyrocketed with high gas prices, Tri-Rail, which built capacity to handle 64,000 daily riders, was able to handle it. Ridership is up more than 100 percent than in 2006. The greatest problem is that counties and the state have tremendous financial shortages in the current economic crisis, and the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), which operates Tri-Rail, does not have a dedicated funding source. Two of the three counties that have supported the agency in the past are cutting back, which could result in cutting the number of daily trains in half.