Oops? Tri-Rail trains can’t fit at Miami Brightline station. Taxpayers deserve answers | Editorial

The people of Miami-Dade County have deserved better mass transit for years.

And that makes the fiasco at the Miami Tri-Rail depot, which is being built by Brightline, all the more infuriating and unacceptable.

It’s bad enough that the $70 million project to bring Tri-Rail trains into downtown Miami originally was supposed to open in 2017 — 2017! — and still hasn’t. But now we find out that Brightline built the second-story platform (with taxpayer money) a few inches too narrow for Tri-Rail trains to pass through the station without clipping off the steps protruding from train doors.

When the problem was first included in a report in April, Tri-Rail engineers called it a “serious construction defect.” Well, yeah.

Oversight missing

But it wasn’t until a meeting of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, Tri-Rail’s governing body, earlier this month that the issue blew up. Authority members — there are appointees and local elected officials from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties — were furious that Tri-Rail hadn’t told them sooner, as the Miami Herald reported.

But where in the world was the oversight on this?

Apparently we aren’t alone in asking that question. The Miami-Dade County Inspector General’s Office sat in on the latest meeting last week. Good. Someone needs to stand up for taxpayers in this mess. And Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, a board member, has called for the resignation of the Tri-Rail Director Steven Abrams.

That’s not all. Amid the fallout from the too-narrow platform problem, Tri-Rail has raised new questions about whether the viaduct, or ramp, that will bring the trains into the station is strong enough to bear their weight safely. Brightline says the viaduct is safe, but also said that Tri-Rail still must sign a contract for new train software, install it and train employees to use it. That’ll take five or six months, which will delay the trains. There’s also a dispute between the two train operators about emissions standards for the Tri-Rail trains.

The result? Tri-Rail trains aren’t likely to be coming into downtown Miami’s Brightline station until the end of 2022 — if then. And that means it’s the taxpaying public paying the price.

Miami needs mass transit

All of this stems from a plan to bring Tri-Rail — a fairly low-cost, publicly funded, north-south train system — into downtown Miami using a nine-mile track extension and a platform at the station Brightline was already building. Brightline is a for-profit, more-expensive train system with tracks that run to the east of Tri-Rail’s. The public-private partnership was supposed to allow people who get on a Tri-Rail train to ride all the way into the MiamiCentral Brightline station, which is being developed as a live/work and transit hub.

That still sounds like a good idea. As anyone who has driven our highways at rush hour knows, this region desperately needs passenger railways to help us all get around. But the fight between Brightline and Tri-Rail, the delays in construction and the lack of transparency have us wondering about this deal — and whether another deal, already under way, might be unwise.

Miami-Dade wants to build a commuter line between Miami and Aventura. Brightline has a county contract to build the Aventura station, and Tri-Rail hopes to serve as operator of the line. Regalado has publicly questioned whether Tri-Rail should have a role; at this point, we’re not sure about either party.

Regalado, who is vice chair of the authority, wants answers by the time the group meets again in January. We agree. It should be Job One for both Brightline and Tri-Rail to demonstrate that the public’s money wasn’t invested in the wrong people.

There are some actions already in the works. The issue with the too-narrow train platform may be fixed by modifying Tri-Rail trains. And, should Abrams be replaced, we hope the new executive director is someone who can remedy Tri-Rail’s failure to communicate while also providing solid knowledge of transit.

Tri-Rail and Brightline need to work together, not against each other. If they hope to win the public’s confidence, they’d better get those trains running soon. Why would anyone trust them with the Miami-to-Aventura line unless they can get this one right?