South Florida mass transit

[Brickell]

which is unfortunate, because they're usually the poorer ones that can't afford a price hike. this is needed though. I don't consider it a very big deal. hopefully increased ridership from all these new developments and expansions will help make up some of the money as well.

also consider that this may mean we get full metrorail expansion, instead of just the two lines.

[Aessotariq]

Miami approves study of Midtown Miami streetcar proposal

By Yeleny Suarez

Miami city commissioners approved spending $550,000 for a study of a proposed streetcar in the Midtown Miami project.

"This is an ongoing study. If we do not address this particular item now, it could impact us anywhere from $5 million to $8 million in the future," said Alicia Cuervo Schreiber, chief of operations for City Manager Joe Arriola.

The money is to come from the city's share of Miami-Dade County's half-cent transit surtax. A revised agreement between the city and the Midtown Miami Community.will supplant an agreement approved Dec. 9 by the commission that includes $613,000 for conceptual and final design services and permit modifications.

The study is to evaluate the feasibility of a streetcar operation between downtown Miami and Northeast 79th Street along a north-south corridor and the redeveloping Buena Vista Rail Yard Area.

Midtown Miami is a 56-acre development planned for Miami's Wynwood neighborhood north of the Performing Arts Center. The Midtown Community Development District is a political subdivision that allows public financing of the project. The city and county approved its creation in late 2003 at the request of developers.

Developer Midtown Group plans a mixed-use project to include 3,000 condos, 900 rental units, office space, retail space and a spa. The first phase of construction is to begin early this year and be completed in 2006.

The second part of the project, the Shops of Midtown Miami, a 600,000-square-foot shopping center, is to be created by Diversified Realty of Ohio.

City Commissioner Johnny Winton said the county should help pay for transportation projects. "This a transit program. They need to be paying for it. They need to be paying for ongoing operations," he said.

"The key point is the county needs to get out of the municipal service business and focus on regional issues. One issue that is crystal-clear and they are directly responsible for is transportation," he said.

"They are giving us part of the sales tax to do that, but the fact of the matter is the more transit, the greater a system we create for transit, the sooner we are going to have a community that will allow us to move around in the city of Miami in particular. We are not going to build any more roads or widen any roads because there are not any more places where we can widen the roads."

Ms. Schreiber said the commission would get a presentation on the streetcar study by the end of next month. "Maintenance and government issues are a discussion that should be ongoing after that," she said.

"The decision on who pays for operating has not been decided and the cost has not been identified," Commissioner Winton said. "When we get the feasibility study, we are going to know, and then we are all going to start working on recruiting this land because it is in fact transit, and transit is a county home."

Link to article

[Brickell]

A full east-west line with subway through downtown??? I like the sound of that.

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/st...21/daily38.html

Miami-Dade rail project gains prime consultant

HNTB Corp. has secured another Miami-Dade transit project, this time working as prime consultant for the east-west corridor rail project.

The Miami office of HNTB said the contract from Miami-Dade Transit is the first the agency has awarded since voters approved a multibillion-dollar expansion of the Miami-Dade transit system in November 2002.

The east-west corridor project is among the largest project possibilities in the transit system. HNTB estimated the construction value at $2.5 billion.

The corridor is to link the suburban areas of western Miami-Dade County with Miami International Airport, downtown Miami and the Port of Miami via a rapid transit rail line, usually suggested as an expansion of the county's Metrorail system. Roadway improvements may also be required.

As the prime consultant, HNTB said it will provide environmental impact statement planning and engineering services. The proposed, 17-mile rail line would be built using a combination of elevated guideways in suburban areas and tunnels in downtown/urban areas. It would include 11 stations and a rail maintenance facility.

Other services, HNTB added, will include station architecture, urban design and planning, funding, transit specialty systems, tunnels, bridge and structures, roadway transportation and specialty transit systems engineering.

In November, HNTB secured another east-west contract in Miami-Dade - final design plans for a State Road 836 toll plaza design-build project.

The company is also a technical consultant to support the SunGuide program in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Also, from its Fort Lauderdale office, HNTB has also done traffic operations and safety studies work in counties farther north than Miami-Dade.

[Urban_Legend]

I can't wait to see what this rail line will look like. How soon do you think they'll have renderings and plans?

[miamistreets]

i think they should begin planning(if they arent already) a subway line.Although,when i think about it,itll be difficult since there too much water,specially underground.But it would be great if they could,or if they are.Because the streets and highways are becoming packed.

Sometimes i get happy though,because that shows that Miami is becoming populated.(i think).

[KendallKid]

Man MiamiStreets how old are you? You type like a 5th grader.

"It will show that Miami is becoming populated?(I think)"

That makes no sense. Miami IS populated I have never met anyone who does not think so. 5 million plus in the metro area. What are you thinking.

[Aessotariq]

The discussion of placing new Metrorail lines that would cut through areas such as Overtown underground has been on the table for a while. Thanks to advances in tunnel boring technology, subways are possible in areas such as ours, that have high water tables. It's also much more expensive to build this way, but it does keep existing neighborhoods intact. I'm glad they're exploring the option. I just hope we have the money for it when that time comes.

[Aessotariq]

Posted on Thu, Mar. 03, 2005

SUNNY ISLES BEACH

A new way to the mall: City adds shuttle route

Sunny Isles Beach has added a route running between the Intracoastal and Aventura malls to its free shuttle service. Use of the service is increasing.

BY BEN TORTER

[email protected]

It was nearly 6 p.m. on a recent Wednesday when Miriam Mendoza and Irene Colina climbed into an air-conditioned shuttle bus at a Publix off Collins Avenue and took a seat behind the driver.

They said they were happy to save $1.25 each that the county bus would have cost them.

''We were waiting for the E bus to Aventura when the bus driver stopped and told us that he goes to Aventura,'' Mendoza said.

Last November Sunny Isles Beach added a third route, the mall line, to its free shuttle-bus service. Seven days per week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. it makes a loop around Sunny Isles Beach which includes stops at both the Intracoastal Mall, 3789 NE 163rd St. in North Miami Beach, and the Aventura Mall, 19501 Biscayne Blvd.

Before that, the city ran one of its other shuttles to the malls two days per week.

''We had intended to extend before November 2004 but there were a couple of route issues which delayed things,'' said Susan Simpson, director of cultural and human services. .

A hold-up was purchasing new buses.

Shortly after voters approved the half-penny sales tax for mass transit in November 2002, the city began looking into purchasing new buses, Simpson said.

Shuttle service in Sunny Isles Beach began in 1998 under the late Mayor David Samson. At that time the city rented three rundown 15-passenger vans from the county for a dollar each per year. The city now has five buses of its own.

The fleet includes two, 1999 Fords with seating capacity for 18 passengers; a 2004 Ford with seating for 26 passengers with no wheelchairs or 22 passengers with two wheelchairs; and two 2004 Chevrolets with seating for 26 passengers with no wheelchairs or 22 passengers with two wheelchairs.

Simpson said the three 2004 buses cost about $87,000 each and were purchased with money from the half-penny sales tax.

According to Simpson, the city budgeted $183,000 toward the shuttle service for fiscal year 2004-05. Of that figure, $99,000 comes from the half-penny sales tax.

The fleet is operated by three full-time and three part-time drivers, as well as two public works employees who fill in when needed.

Sunny Isles Beach resident Enrique Valdes is the shuttle driver who stopped to pick up Mendoza and Colina.

After the 66-year-old dropped them off at the Aventura Mall, he traveled with mostly empty seats.

''Normally I'd have picked up three or four regulars who work at the mall at this time,'' Valdes said.

Between noon and 6:40 p.m. that Wednesday, Feb. 16 Valdes had driven 93 passengers.

City records show that ridership has indeed expanded over the last few years.

Since service was extended in November, average daily ridership on all three lines is 300 passengers.

That number is up from about 150 passengers per day in 2001 when the city ran two buses per day.

''Our ridership fluctuates with the season with the winter time being our busiest time of year,'' Simpson said.

Link to article

[Brickell]

Fare hike clears first hurdle...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11105297.htm

TRANSPORTATION

Got an extra quarter? Fares may go up 25 cents

The County Commission will consider bumping fares a quarter on Tuesday. If it is approved, the first fare hike in 15 years will go into effect on May 1.

BY LARRY LEBOWITZ

[email protected]

Metrobus and Metrorail riders, start digging between the couch cushions for extra quarters: County commissioners are poised to increase fares for the first time in nearly 15 years.

The transportation committee on Thursday voted 4-1 to hike the regular adult fare from $1.25 to $1.50. If the full commission adopts the plan on Tuesday, the new fares would go into effect on May 1.

Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler was pushing for a bigger hike, up to $1.60 per ride, but backed down a tad at the urging of Transportation Chairman Carlos Gimenez.

Gimenez said he likes ''round numbers, round figures'' and felt that $1.50 was a fair and equitable increase.

Disabled persons who use the Special Transportation Services program will not be affected by the proposed fare hike. The committee erased Carey-Shuler's proposal to increase STS customers' fares from $2.50 to $3.20.

Carey-Shuler called for the fare increase in February, days after Mayor Carlos Alvarez vetoed a controversial financial bailout package that would have used $143 million in half-cent sales-tax proceeds to settle old Miami-Dade Transit operating deficits and meet anticipated operating shortfalls through 2011.

Alvarez said using the sales tax to cover old operating problems breaks the fundamental promise at the core of the 2002 campaign: that the new money was supposed to be used exclusively for new rail and bus service.

Transit financial analysts are still tweaking the numbers, but the new fares, coupled with a mild, short-term dropoff in riders that comes with any increase, should generate in the ballpark of $20 million annually.

Fare increases were already programmed for the not-too-distant future, so Carey-Shuler's proposal is simply accelerating the timetable. Transit was budgeting a 35-cent increase to $1.60 in 2007; to $2.10 in 2013; and $2.60 in 2017.

Fare hikes have historically been a hot-button issue at County Hall. In the past, commissioners were reticent to even touch the issue because of the outcry from elderly and working-poor riders. But that problem was blunted with the 2002 passage of the half-cent sales tax for transportation, which allowed everyone over 65 to ride for free.

Even though she praised Carey Shuler's courage for trying to solve difficult problems with an unpopular solution, Commissioner Rebeca Sosa cast the lone ''no'' vote.

[Brickell]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11105432.htm

FORT LAUDERDALE

State DOT backs rail plan

An ambitious mass-transit project proposed for downtown Fort Lauderdale stays on track with critical backing from the state.

BY SAMUEL P. NITZE

[email protected]

Plans to create two public rail routes in downtown Fort Lauderdale received a key boost this week with a commitment of money and support from the state Department of Transportation.

That commitment, outlined in a March 7 letter from Transportation Secretary Jos

[streetscaper]

We'll just have to wait and see, I guess!!

[bobliocatt]

The Fort Lauderdale rail project sounds like its moving along fairly good. Its interesting to see that officials intend to offer free service. Has anyone seen any maps showing the proposed rail locations yet?

[Aessotariq]

I haven't found a diagram specific to the proposed Fort Lauderdale project yet, but I did find a map of long term projects for Broward County as a whole. Sorry for the huge size -- I can shrink this down to a thumbnail version if you think it would be better:

This inset might be part of the light rail system:

[bobliocatt]

Great work. I'm glad that the proposed downtown rail loops actually extend outside of downtown's borders. The main thing I think they should reconsider are the actual loops. I think the area would be better served making single lines that run twice as long, in each direction, instead of looping the lines a block or two away in the other direction. I'd also seriously consider running the Los Olas line, all the way down to the beach.

[Urban_Legend]

^Yeah, there needs to be a downtown-beach Las Olas connector.

[Aessotariq]

The NIMBYwasp nest has been disturbed!

If you look on the transit map in the previous message this article refers to the north-south portion of the green line that ends at the Sawgrass Mills Transit Center.

Mass transit route upsets homeowners

By Jeremy Milarsky

Staff Writer

Posted March 19 2005

SUNRISE

[bobdreamz]

Interesting how the proposed LRT Corridors in Broward extend into Palm Beach & Miami-Dade counties. A better alternative would be to connect the LRT directly to Metrorail in north Dade instead of solely using a BRT line between the two systems.

[bobdreamz]

Metrorail expansion expected to begin soon

By Claudio Mendon

[bobliocatt]

$340 million for 2.6 miles?? Wow, I guess I forgot how expensive expanding the metrorail system actually is. I'm definately impressed by the residents of Miami-Dade to step up and foot most of the bill themselves. Nevertheless, a direct connection between the airport and downtown should greatly increase metrorail's ridership. Now officials just need to convince the residents of Miami Beach to jump aboard.

[bobdreamz]

^ although it is a high figure the $340 million price tag does include 8 new trains as well as land aquisition costs which have soared since the line was first proposed.

The county hasn't fully secured the ROW for the connector yet which is in contrast to the North corridor.

The Earlington Heights-MIC connector cost per mile averages out to $130 million whereas the North corridor at 9.5 miles and an estimated total cost of $843 million will average out to $88.7 million per mile...barring of course cost over runs.

[Dale]

So Metrorail will connect the airport to MIC ... and then passengers headed downtown would have to take a bus ?

[bobdreamz]

^ actually Metrorail will only connect to the MIC...either a light rail or people mover system will connect the airport to the MIC (the red line in the map below, sorry for the size)

from the MIC you will be able to choose between TRI-Rail, Metrorail (to downtown),

Metrobus or rent a car.

[Aessotariq]

Interesting how the proposed LRT Corridors in Broward extend into Palm Beach & Miami-Dade counties. A better alternative would be to connect the LRT directly to Metrorail in north Dade instead of solely using a BRT line between the two systems.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From what I understand the BRT thing is just a stop-gap measure to get something in place, sort-of like the South Dade busway (someday to be replaced by HRT). If the 27th Avenue Metrorail track were extended into Broward County then the conversion process would be greatly simplified (BRT -> HRT rather than tearing down LRT infrastructure to install HRT).

[Aessotariq]

^ although it is a high figure the $340 million price tag does include 8 new trains as well as land aquisition costs which have soared since the line was first proposed.

The county hasn't fully secured the ROW for the connector yet which is in contrast to the North corridor.

The Earlington Heights-MIC connector cost per mile averages out to $130 million whereas the North corridor at 9.5 miles and an estimated total cost of $843 million will average out to $88.7 million per mile...barring of course cost over runs.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Connector will allow MDT to actually operate at least two new services on the same track (interlining)... Theoretically they could run an Airport(MIC)-Dadeland line, as well as a Palmetto-Airport(MIC) line, in addition to the existing Palmetto-Dadeland line. This is definitely exciting.

[miamistreets]

I cant wait.