CSX tracks to Homestead

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.

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.

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!

Replacing the busway with Metrorail is also planned--eventually.