Tri-Rail posts ridership records as commuter line seeks restoration of funding cuts
When Tri-Rail Executive Director David Dech arrived in Tallahassee this week for the annual state legislative session, he took along what is probably the South Florida rail line’s most important sales aid: a report of record ridership for 2025.
He’ll need it as he spearheads Tri-Rail’s lobbying drive to restore millions in funding cuts announced last year by the Florida Department of Transportation. Without the money, Dech has said Tri-Rail has enough cash to run through July 2027. Elected commissioners in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties all have said they lack the resources to help replace the money the FDOT cut.
Instead of contributing a statutory minimum of $42.1 million — and as much as $62 million annually, as it has in the past — the state transportation agency informed the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees Tri-Rail, that the new figure would be $15 million starting with the 2025-26 fiscal year, which started last July. In the interim, the line has been dipping into dwindling reserves to prop up a $150 million budget. The three counties Tri-Rail serves also contribute annual subsidies of $4 million to go along with the fares paid by riders.