TRI-RAIL

'Tri-Rail' is a Regional rail line linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, Florida. It is run by the 'South Florida Regional Transportation Authority'. The 72-mile system has 18 stations along the South Florida coast. The rail connects to the Metrorail in Miami at the Tri-Rail/Metrorail Transfer Station.

Contents

Overview

Station list

See also

Fleet

External links

Overview

Formed in 1987 by the Florida Department of Transportation, the system originally was created to provide temporary commuter rail service while construction crews widened Interstate 95 and the parallel Florida's Turnpike, but Tri-Rail outlasted its temporary status, adding more trains and stations in the process. Line extensions have enabled Tri-Rail to service all three South Florida international airports: Miami International Airport, Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and Palm Beach International Airport (the latter from the West Palm Beach station after the closing of the Palm Beach Airport station in 1997).
Tri-Rail shares its track with Amtrak's ''Silver Meteor'' and ''Silver Star'' and CSX's Miami Subdivision. The Florida Department of Transportation purchased the track from CSX in 1989. Under the terms of the agreement, CSX would continue to provide dispatch services and physical plant maintenance for the track and would have exclusive freight trackage rights until certain conditions were met.
In 1996, the initial 67-mile route was extended north from West Palm Beach Station, and south from Hialeah Market Station (formerly Miami Airport Station) to include the Mangonia Park Station and the new Miami Airport station, both of which opening in 1998. Due to this expansion, the system now extends roughly 72 miles.
In 2007, a project to upgrade the full length of the line from Mangonia Park to Miami Airport with double-track was completed with the opening of a high-level fixed bridge over the New River near Fort Lauderdale. Once several other modernization projects are completed, the SFRTA will assume full responsibility for dispatching and maintenance from CSX.
Like other commuter rail services in the United States, Tri-Rail utilizes Bombardier BiLevel Coaches, but as of late 2006, has begun adding bi-level rolling stock from Colorado Railcar.
The completion of the New River rail bridge and the addition of a second Colorado Railcar DMU ushered in sweeping changes to Tri-Rail's operational timetables. in June 2007, Tri-Rail added several more trains during peak weekday commuting hours. During "rush-hour," trains run every half-hour rather than the previous schedule of every hour. This change comes at quite a fortuitous time in Tri-Rail's operation history. With gasoline prices at record highs--particularly in South Florida's sprawling metropolis--Tri-Rail has seen a double-digit percentage increase in ridership in mid-2007.
In the ''2025 and 2030 long range transportation plans'', Tri-Rail has envisioned moving to or adding service on the Florida East Coast (FEC) rail corridor, which runs next to U.S. Route 1 (Biscayne Boulevard/Brickell avenue in Miami-Dade County, and Federal Highway in Broward & Palm Beach Counties). This corridor will provide more opportunities for pedestrian travel from stations to end destinations than does the current South Florida Rail Corridor, which must rely almost exclusively on shuttle buses for passenger distribution.

Station list

Currently, the Tri-Rail has six stations in Palm Beach County, seven in Broward County (Greater Fort Lauderdale), and five Miami-Dade County.

Zone	County	Station
1	Palm Beach County	Mangonia Park Station
		West Palm Beach Station
		Lake Worth Station
2		Boynton Beach Station
		Delray Beach Station
3		Boca Raton Station
	Broward County	Deerfield Beach Station
		Pompano Beach Station
4		Cypress Creek Station
		Fort Lauderdale Station
5		Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport Station at Dania Beach
		Sheridan Street Station
		Hollywood Station
6	Miami-Dade County	Golden Glades Station
		Opa-locka Station
		Metrorail Transfer Station
		Hialeah Market Station
		Miami Airport Station

See also

★ List of United States railroads

★ List of Florida railroads

Fleet

The service began with EMD F40PH locomotives and Bombardier BiLevel Coaches leased from GO Transit. Tri-Rail later took delivery of several F40PH-2L locomotives and F40PH-2C locomotives. Recently, several EMD GP49-3 locomotives were acquired from Norfolk Southern and sport the new "swoosh" Tri-Rail livery.
In 2003, after receiving a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation, Tri-Rail contracted to purchase two pieces of rolling stock from Colorado Railcar: a self-propelled Diesel Multiple Unit, (DMU's) prototype coach and standard bi-level coach entered regular service with Tri-Rail in October 2006. The new purpose-built commuter coaches are larger than the Bombardier BiLevel Coaches they are designed to eventually replace in practically every respect, holding up to 188 passengers, with room for bicycles and luggage.
The prototype Colorado Railcar consist, with its non-powered cab coach, was once coupled to one of the fleet's EMD GP49-3 diesel locomotives as a "helper" measure during regular service. Sources at Tri-Rail had indicated that temporary, steeper-than-normal grades during construction on the New River Bridge required more power and torque than the DMU's powerplants could effectively produce and still operate within safety limits. With the completion the New River Bridge in April 2007, and the expanded rush-hour schedules implemented in June 2007, Tri-Rail has acquired an additional Colorado Railcar DMU to replace the "helper" locomotive, and also acquired an identical Colorado Railcar three-coach consist of two DMUs and a non-powered cab coach in early 2007. The two three-coach consists now carries roughly 560 paying passengers each in regular revenue service along the line.
The DMU consists are certainly more comfortable trains in terms of passenger seating and capacity than the Bombardier coaches they were acquired to replace. However, they suffer from a lack of bicycle and luggage storage that have been a continual source of irritation and complaints from daily and airport commuters ever since the DMU's original prototype phase. This problem remains uncorrected, despite the acquisition of the new Colorado Railcar rolling stock.
Sources close to the project had once indicated that a single DMU was irreparably underpowered and could not operate within safety margins without a "helper" locomotive, thus defeating the purpose altogether of a self-propelled coach. Ultimately time will tell if this limitation has been overcome with the addition of a second DMU to the original consists, the acquisition of the new consist, the long-awaited completion of the New River rail bridge, and the more frequent scheduling of the trains.

External links

★ Tri-Rail Official website

★ South Florida Regional Transportation Authority

★ South Florida East Coast Corridor Study - Study by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority to reduce congestion and increase mobility in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

★ Transit Miami

★ Colorado Railcar