Miami Airport Station

[MDRailfan]

Does anyone think Amtrak could move to the Miami Airport Station. It's much closer to downtown then the present station.

 

[me_little_me]

What they could do and what they would do are two two entirely different things. Are you asking if they have any thoughts of doing it? Any plans if they have unlimited money? Any plans if they might be able to scrape up the money? Or if their plan even include Miami service in an environment of thoughts of eliminating LD service and replacing them with shorter daytime trains (which might leave out south Florida since Brightline serves that area)?

 

[Palmetto]

This question has been in the air for quite some time. After the idea of moving over to MIA, Amtrak put down brand new concrete ties at the Hialeah station. To me, that was a sign that they had no interest in the move. I haven't heard of any recent interest in the move. The better place to go would be to MiamiCentral in downtown and that is now possible thanks to the Iris Connection to the FEC that Tri-Rail plans to use to get there.

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

This question has been in the air for quite some time. After the idea of moving over to MIA, Amtrak put down brand new concrete ties at the Hialeah station. To me, that was a sign that they had no interest in the move. I haven't heard of any recent interest in the move. The better place to go would be to MiamiCentral in downtown and that is now possible thanks to the Iris Connection to the FEC that Tri-Rail plans to use to get there.

Downtown would be great from a passenger perspective but the station is not capable of handling an LD train and would require a very long backup move to get to the yard in Hialeah. The airport station is capable of handling LD trains, would require a shorter and simpler backup move, and even has a building built for Amtrak. It would also provide a direct connection to Metrorail and easy access to planes and rental cars. Having said that, Amtrak doesn't seem interested so I don't foresee a move anytime soon.

 

[MikefromCrete]

Amtrak has shown no interest in using the airport station. Brighline's downtown station isn't designed for long distance consists. The current Amtrak station is poorly located for the general public, but great for Amtrak, so Amtrak will probably stay right where it is.

 

[Palmetto]

In the future, the way to get to downtown by train will be to change to Tri-Rail at Hollywood.

 

[railiner]

In the future, the way to get to downtown by train will be to change to Tri-Rail at Hollywood.

For someone traveling a long distance, with baggage, children or whatever...I doubt they would do that...in the time they waited for the connecting train, they could ride to the current Miami (Hialeah) station, and get picked up or take a taxi to their final destination, without all the hassle.

 

[user 1215]

So, a year later, what a shame this couldn't happen. Whoever wasted all this money to get the platform wrong should be fired.

 

[Tlcooper44]

There's also the issues of platform height and length being different in many stations. We can't forget the Miami inter-modal fiasco.
As amazing as it would have been to have MiamiCentral be a bit less short-sighted and handle Silver Service, it's not going to happen there.

Amtrak stations are some of the worst aspects of this country's infrastructure, and contribute to low ridership overall. Amtrak could run Shinkansens, but if you're getting dumped off at Miami station, no one cares.

 

[Cal]

So, a year later, what a shame this couldn't happen. Whoever wasted all this money to get the platform wrong should be fired.

What happened?

 

[neroden]

I mean, this idiotic decision by Amtrak has caused me to cancel three trips to Miami But Amtrak doesn't like revenue, and when one of their trains threatens to make more money, they sabotage it

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

The Miami Airport station has space for another platform and two tracks. Plenty of reason to do, something unknown to me is the reason why it has not been done.

The conspiracy theory would be the usual. Poor cost accounting, dislike of anything to improve the LD trains.

Really a low hang fruit but no, we are not allowed to have nice well connected trains here.

 

[jis]

The Miami Airport station has space for another platform and two tracks. Plenty of reason to do, something unknown to me is the reason why it has not been done.

There really is no need for more space as far as space needed for building tracks and platforms is concerned. All the space necessary is already there and the siding lengths are more than enough to host an Amtrak LD train. The problem is NW 25th St. grade crossing and the fact that the platform ends at that crossing and nothing further has been built beyond that crossing.

When the station was built that was the only access road to the parking lots etc. Since then the NW 28th St. access point has been built making the NW 25th St. somewhat disposable. The solution at present is to shut down the NW 25th crossing and build out the platform on the Amtrak tracks another 200 or so feet, and make NW 28th St. the primary access route from the east.

All this could happen if Amtrak showed some interest and contributed some funds perhaps, and FDOT cooperated. At present neither of those two conditions appear to be forthcoming. Also the head house is ridiculously small. It needs to be rebuilt of an appropriate size to serve LD trains.

The additional space that could be used for additional tracks is the bay that is used for the bus station at present. It suffesr from the same NW 25th St. problem and building tracks and platform there will not solve the current problem I suppose if Brightline ever shows up at this station that is where they will go.