Railroad Forums 

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

 #1021822  by Wingnut
 
Why doesn't Tri-Rail run four car trains when they're needed? If their their fleet is too small, well, that is simply unacceptable. Any self respecting commuter railroad would have acquired more rolling stock to handle the ridership increase from the double track project.
 #1021922  by Noel Weaver
 
Wingnut wrote:Why doesn't Tri-Rail run four car trains when they're needed? If their their fleet is too small, well, that is simply unacceptable. Any self respecting commuter railroad would have acquired more rolling stock to handle the ridership increase from the double track project.
The present situation might not be acceptable but it is fact because there is simply not enough equipment to increase the size of the trains to four cars. I think most of the two car trains are now history, I haven't seen one lately, they have at least two of the new Rotem cars in service and if they do not have too many cars laid up I think they all run with three cars. Three car trains on Tri-Rail have decent capacity for the existing ridership and I don't think there are many cases of SRO conditions today. Please remember that we are very lucky to have what we have considering the number of commuter rail operations in the southeast today. There are a lot of politicians in Tallahassee today who would delight in seeing Tri-Rail just go away but that is not going to happen but I don't see any major expansion in the near future either. In my personal opinion Tri-Rail service is pretty good but it would be a lot better with a late evening train or two out of Miami so somebody going down for an evening concert or sports event could use the train, maybe sometime we will have that as it could be done without breaking the bank.
Noel Weaver
 #1022193  by Wingnut
 
Well, if there are no more two car trains, that's a step in the right direction. I still couldn't get over the fact that, during my trips to Miami the last couple of years, Tri-Rail was running two car trains during peak hour.