Discussion about Florida passenger rail operations including proposals. Official web-sites:
Miami/Dade Metrorail, Sunrail (Orlando), and Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority
For Virgin Rail/Brightline: Virgin Trains Worldwide (includes Brightline)

Moderator: Kurt-Trirail

  by mark777
 
I was just down in Miami a few weeks ago visiting my family. I went by my father-in-laws new house down in Homestead only to find a set of tracks behind his yard. That line being the CSX homestead extension. I walked the tracks only to find them in rather crappy condition. Ties were rotten and broke, little ballast, unaligned jointed rail, and plenty of rust on the rails. was wondering if the previous plans mentioned some years back about extending Tri-Rail south from MIA to Homestead, if those plans still exist or did it go the way of all those metro-rail extension lines planned that never saw the light of day? I can clearly see that for the most part, the infrastructure is in place, needing new tracks, signal system, and some stations. but would be minimal compared to creating a completely new right of way somewhere else. I see a potential on those rusty tracks out there.
  by Rockingham Racer
 
Yes, the plan still exists, but it's Florida. Passenger rail is on the local track there! IIRC, the initial plan was to go only to the outermost southwestern suburban area, but I could be wrong there.
  by mark777
 
Yes, unfortunately south Florida has a severe love affair with their cars no matter how bad the traffic is. I believe there was talk in the past of using the line as far as the area around the zoo before branching off to the west to serve the western most portion of dade county to around the area of Tamiami Airport. Granted, south of there, there is considerably less in the way of population, but perhaps a final stop of Florida City is possible with no stops in between until at least the 150s in Avenues. If only Metro Rail could follow suit on US1 all the way down!
  by Rockingham Racer
 
Replacing the busway with Metrorail is also planned--eventually.