miamicanes wrote:Rental cars and immediate proximity to the new airport Metrorail station aside, there's a big, *huge* reason for Amtrak to make MIC their Miami station -- Miami residents can safely leave their cars parked there overnight. You'd have to be *insane* to leave your car parked at the Hialeah station. I've met at least a dozen people over the past 3 years who live in Miami south of 836 and literally drive 20+ miles north to Hollywood Station when they ride Amtrak... precisely because it's the nearest station to Miami where you can safely leave your car parked without spending the entire trip worrying you're going to return a few days later to a car with smashed windows, missing contents, and probably a lot of water damage from rain... assuming Amtrak didn't have your car towed, piling a $200+ towing bill plus daily storage charges AND a taxi ride home (since your car will be miles away, and the towing company won't release it without a copy of your title AND cash to pay the towing/storage charges).
Yeah, it would be more work for Amtrak to run the trains ~5 miles to and from Hialeah at the start and finish of each trip... but for God's sake, we're talking about 5 miles, not 50. Planes landing at DFW taxi farther than that between the terminal and main runways. If you're on eastbound I-595 at US-441, you'll almost drive farther than that before your car makes contact with the nearest surface road. MIC is such an ungodly huge improvement over the Hialeah Amshack, it would almost be *criminal* for Amtrak to not make it their official Miami station.
The current Hialeah Amtrak station is horrible for actual passengers. You can't safely park there, rental cars are nowhere nearby, the nearest freeways are several miles away through (take your pick) hellish perpetual gridlock or a dangerous ghetto that would scare Hannibal Lecter. The nearest Metrorail station is more than a mile away, the nearest Dade County Bus stop is at least a half mile away, and shared van taxis (SuperShuttle) don't service it.
That said, I really hope Amtrak doesn't do something suicidally stupid, like eliminate one of the two trains between Miami and Orlando to add the MIA-JAX route as some have suggested. If the only way to get to Orlando from Miami (and vice-versa) is a 7 hour trip via Tampa (the likely scenario, since I can't see them eliminating Tampa instead), their (currently substantial) Miami-Orlando intrastate travel market will be killed dead. Nobody, not even the most diehard railfan, is masochistic enough to spend 7 hours riding between Miami and Orlando more than once.
I agree that there is no rental car counter in the station at Miami (Hialeah) but many rental companies will deliver a car by
appointment so a car can be had there. Local bus lines stop at the station including a direct bus to Miami Beach. The
nearest Metro-Rail Station is much less than a mile but it is not a good idea to walk there. If a southbound passenger is
headed for Metro-Rail, it is not difficult to transfer at either Fort Lauderdale or Hollywood to Tri-Rail for a direct connection
to Metro-Rail. Unless Amtrak decides to run on the Florida East Coast all the way to Downtown Miami and build a station
there, I suspect they will remain exactly where they are in Hialeah and utilize a new connection between the Florida East
Coast and Tri-Rail trackage at West Palm Beach. Of course there will not be a decision on this for some time, we have to
get the basic service on the FEC first or at least get the decision made to run there first before anything more happens.
In addition a new station at the Miami Airport would not be owned nor operated by Amtrak and the owners of this facility
will expect Amtrak to pay rent to use it, this would make absolutely no sense for Amtrak as they would gain little or
nothing. They already own their station in Hialeah.
Orlando and Tampa will continue to have service. I don't know whether Miami - Tampa or Miami Orlando service will continue after they move to the FEC or not. It is far more important to improve revenues for these trains and splitting the
train at Jacksonville and covering both the east and west as well as Orlando is the sensible thing to do.
You are also incorrect concerning the present service between Miami and both Tampa and Orlando. As of now there is a
direct train to both Orlando (98 and 97) and Tampa (92 and 91). The East Coast of Florida offers Amtrak a huge
opportunity to expand their passenger operations in Florida without adding a huge number of trains and the sooner this
happens, the better off everybody will be.
As far as parking there is concerned, I parked my car there twice in connection with the Amtrak Inspection Train and I had
absolutely no problems of any kind and there were other cars there as well. There is a police patrol (Amtrak that is) in the
area and people are working there at night as well. I would have no hesistation to leave my car again there if there was
need to and the parking is free and plentiful too.
Noel Weaver
