Advice for railfanning the Greater Miami area without a car

[njtmnrrbuff]

Hi,
This winter, I'm going to be traveling to Miami with some friends to take a cruise ship out of there. I will have plenty of time to railfan. I won't be driving. Where are the best areas to railfan for somebody without a car in the Miami Area? Which neighborhoods should I stay out of? We will probably stay in Ft. Lauderdale near the airport. Thanks.

[Noel Weaver]

The Florida East Coast might be somewhat difficult without a car although soon (maybe later this month) the trains will be operating downtown in and out of the Port of Miami which will give you an opportunity to view the action from the area around the American Airlines Arena which is accessible by good ground transportation. As for CSX/Amtrak/Tri Rail I would recommend Fort Lauderdale station which is presently under construction but I think by winter much if not all of the work will be finished. There are benches there, facilities too and a lot of trains. Tri-Rail runs 25 trains a day each way on weekdays and even on weekends every hour all day. Amtrak has their 2 round trips and CSX throws in a train every now and then. On the mainline the Florida East Coast runs about 5 found trips from Fort Lauderdale north plus local freights and sometimes an extra as well. The trains are spaced out over a 24 hour period and you really need ATCS in order to plan to be where you will see something. From the Tri-Rail Station at Fort Lauderdale you can take the 22 bus which runs pretty frequent service east to the Florida East Coast crossing where there is a park as well as a drawbridge that is normally open and when it closes you can expect a train within about 15 minutes. I see lots of trains around here but then, I live here and I know what to expect and when to expect it.
Noel Weaver