Tri-Rail Breaks All Time Ridership Record

Sun Sentinel wrote: The more than 70 mile rail systems with stations in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties logged 19,731 trips on Thursday, officials said. That number breaks the previous record that was set on the day of the Miami Heat victory parade in 2006 by more than 1,000.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/browar ... 7976.story


I'm definitely not surprised since when I rode yesterday every seat was taken. I've never seen so many people getting on and off Tri-Rail. Made me feel like a New Yorker.

Yesterday (Thursday) was "National Dump the Pump Day", rides were free on both Tri-Rail and the Broward County Transit Buses, I suspect that was at least partially responsible for the surge in riders.
Noel Weaver

One of the commenters on the article hit on a valid point, namely that an awful lot of people commuting south to Miami live out in the western Broward burbs and will never drive all the way east to hop on Tri-Rail; instead, they just drive down I-75, which is where there should be some rail. Interestingly enough, the FDOT has been holding public hearings this week on their project development and environment study for I-75. Initially, FDOT was going to consider the possibility of rail down the middle of I-75, but now they've scaled that back to special use lanes for express bus service. http://www.i-75vision.com/P_Info/P_Info.html

Ideally, there should be rail extending down I-75 and connecting with Metrorail, as well as east-west rail in both Miami-Dade and Broward (and rail running south from the western terminus of the east-west line in Dade). The penny sales tax increase for the grand Metrorail expansion was frittered away in Miami-Dade, though, and Broward seems to regularly shoot down east-west light rail, unfortunately.

I agree, around here they would rather spend money for more highway lanes. No rail pretty much under any circumstances.
Noel Weaver