The good: Tri-Rail smashed another ridership record last week. The South Florida Transportation Authority reported that 17,241 passengers boarded a Tri-Rail train on Thursday.

It was the second largest day in Tri-Rail's 20-year history, and all the more remarkable because it was just another Thursday in paradise and the record -- 18,452 -- was a once-in-a-lifetime event: the Miami Heat NBA Championship victory parade in June 2006.

Tri-Rail is consistently surpassing the 16,000 boardings-per-day mark -- more than double the 7,500 boardings a day the agency was recording just three years ago at the nadir of the double-tracking construction project from hell.

Public transportation numbers are up across the United States since gasoline prices spiked at $4 a gallon earlier this year. And in Tri-Rail's case, the numbers are continuing to rise even though gas prices have receded, ever-so-slightly back into the $3.70-to-$3.80 neighborhood.

With the 28 percent growth in year-to-year ridership, Tri-Rail ranks third, on a percentage basis, for ridership growth among commuter rail providers nationwide.

Now, the bad: It's still only 17,000 boardings a day in a car-crazed region of more than six million people and a gazillion tourists and snowbirds, and the local governments -- especially Broward and Palm Beach counties -- are making more noise about cutting Tri-Rail revenues next year.

They're already making it harder or more expensive for Tri-Rail passengers to get from the train to the bus to the office or home. Several of the critical connector routes that run from station to workplace and back are in danger.

Broward County Transit and PalmTran are starting to charge transfers that used to be free. Those connector routes are in danger.

Passengers will be digging deeper into their pockets just to get to and from work everyday. It's still a bargain compared to gas and insurance and maintenance of a personal vehicle. But it's less of a bargain than it was a year ago.

If any of the three counties reduces its share of funding to the train, then it will set off a cascading series of events that will dramatically reduce the subsidies from the other two counties and 50 percent match from the state.

And now, the ugly: The commuter train's long-term future is as hazy as ever.

Tri-Rail has to start prepping for another year of dancing in the corridors of Tallahassee, hat in hand, begging the Legislature and the governor to finally adopt a dedicated local funding source. Rental car fees, license plate renewal fees, fees on fees. Everything is on the table, as it has been since 2003.

A series of Tri-Rail specific transportation summits are being set for each of the three counties between now and mid-November followed by a regional summit that will be set before the Legislature returns next year.

It might be a tougher sell in Miami-Dade, where the locals will already be suffering from DTSF -- Dueling Transpo-Summit Fatigue.

Miami-Dade will be inviting the community to gather and hear, once and for all, why the half-cent sales tax for transportation hasn't delivered many of the major promises of the 2002 campaign, why the money was diverted to other pressing needs, and then start to prioritize what's left.

THE `BLOGOSPHERE'

South Beach photographer and agitator extraordinaire Bill Cooke took a potshot at Miami-Dade Transit in a recent not-so-private memo to Director Harpal Kapoor on his blog, ``Random Pixels.''

Brandishing the 50-cent fare increase that goes into effect Oct. 1 like a barnacle-encrusted scabbard, Cooke riffed on an all-too-common complaint about Metrobus driver habits on his route, The South Beach Local:

``May I suggest that you use a fraction of that money to retrain your drivers. Specifically, you might want to refresh them with the rules that are posted on every bus and train in the county. You know, the ones that prohibit smoking, drinking or eating on buses.

``And you might want to start with the South Beach Local drivers since just this last week I saw no fewer than three drivers at different times eating while driving.

Transit's unionized drivers are supposed to have time in between runs for contractually mandated bathroom and food breaks. But when the routes run late, break time disappears.

''A side benefit of having drivers abide by the no-eating rule,'' Cooke notes, ``would be to cut down on the scores of cockroaches that now ride those buses for free!''

Streetwise thinks Cooke -- and Transit -- are missing an opportunity here. If the agency is so strapped for cash, why can't we charge the cockroaches fares?

Slightly less sarcastic side notes to the Transport Workers Union Local 291 and to Miami-Dade Transit: First, nobody should be riding any public transportation vehicle with vermin. Second, this isn't an isolated rant from Metrobus passengers on Miami Beach. And it's not just about eating habits.

Do you have a commuting question or an idea for a future column? Contact Larry Lebowitz at streetwise@

MiamiHerald.com or call him at 305-376-3410 or 954-764-7026, ext. 3410.

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