A commuter train along U.S. 1 in Miami? County unveils plan without El Portal station
Final plans are taking shape for a commuter train between downtown Miami and Aventura, with hopes for a station off 79th Street derailed — for now.
The administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava this week presented its working plan for the $682 million rail system to run on the track corridor already used by Brightline trains. Like Tri-Rail on the western side of Interstate 95, the new county-funded train system in the northeastern part of Miami-Dade would offer passengers a north-south route along U.S. 1, with trains leaving every 30 to 60 minutes.
READ MORE: A train ride from downtown to Little Haiti? County vote advances Brightline plan
The plan unveiled at an online meeting Wednesday night for the “Northeast Corridor” rail line has five new stations, with the end points at existing Brightline stations in Miami and Aventura. Those new stations are:
▪ Wynwood at Northeast 29th Street
▪ Design District at Northeast 41st Street
▪ Little Haiti at Northeast 61st Street
▪ North Miami at Northeast 123rd Street
▪ Florida International University’s North Campus at Northeast 151st Street
That outline excluded one station location that was in preliminary layouts for the Northeast line, and the subject of developer proposals submitted to Miami-Dade in 2021. The location was the El Portal station at Northeast 79th Street, which the administration said would be too costly to build.
At the digital town hall, the plan received praise as a new transit option and requests that Miami-Dade consider more stations along the route.
“I regularly use Tri-Rail,” Ian Sheldon told the meeting conducted on Zoom. He said he’d welcome a similar affordable rail option between Miami and Aventura. “As someone without a car, I want to go there,” he said.
Sara McDevitt urged Miami-Dade to consider moving the FIU stop to 160th Street because students would need to ride shuttles from the waterfront campus anyway and a more northern stop would mesh with a development boom. “There are so many projects proposed,” she said. “There are huge tracts of land with potential for real transit overlay.”
Using the Brightline corridor limits the infrastructure costs for a project Florida has already pledged to help fund, with Miami-Dade expecting federal transportation dollars to also reduce the local price tag. The administration hasn’t recommended an operator yet. Tri-Rail is interested in running the service for Miami-Dade since it operates a similar commuting line already. Brightline would be another option.
In a September memo, Levine Cava said the El Portal stop was the only one that proved too daunting to include in the final recommendation, which would need County Commission approval to advance. She said construction challenges for the 79th Street station would mean having to purchase more land for tracks and extend the train routes over water at Northeast 82nd Street.
“This would require constructing bridges for the two new tracks over Little River,” she wrote. “The additional right-of-way and infrastructure needs may result in significant environmental and fiscal impacts.”
The matter may not be settled. Representatives of the Department of Transportation and Public Works said more public meetings would be held before the administration forwards a final plan to the commission. Local leaders are hoping to get a 79th Street station put into the plan before that happens.
Omarr Nickerson, the mayor of El Portal, pointed out 20 blocks or fewer separate the three stations between Wynwood and Little Haiti, while trains would travel more than 60 blocks without a stop on their way to the North Miami station. He’s urging Miami-Dade to think about not just El Portal, but people and businesses in nearby Miami Shores and North Bay Village that won’t have a local stop under the current plan.
“If you look at the map, it’s amazing. It’s a huge gap,” he said. “So many people would make use of a station right there.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 8:01 PM.