Delayed for years, Tri-Rail’s Miami station has a new problem: The trains won’t fit

Tri-Rail on Friday revealed another setback to launching the $70 million tax-funded extension to downtown Miami’s Brightline depot: the trains are too wide for the station, and may be too heavy as well.

A railroad engineers report hired by the government-run rail line between West Palm Beach and Miami International Airport said the platform built by Brightline using public dollars has spots where the structure would hit the steps that stick out from trains’ exit doors.

“It’s inches,” said Steven Abrams, the former Tri-Rail board member and lawyer who has served as Tri-Rail’s director since 2018. “But it’s inches that will clip our steps.”

Abrams said it’s not clear what needs to be done to fix the situation for a Tri-Rail extension that was originally supposed to start operating in 2017. Trains could be modified to narrow the steps that form the outermost edge of the vehicles, he said.

The Dec. 2 report by the Railroad Consultants firm out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, said the platform would need to be rebuilt if the trains can’t be altered.

“As a result of the platforms not being built per the design plans and specifications, extensive modifications, which include concrete/rebar removal and reconstruction, will need to be made to the entire length of the platform or the Tri-Rail [trains] will need to be modified to avoid impact to the platform when service commences,” the report reads.

Brightline has not responded publicly to Tri-Rail’s stance that the problem stems from construction errors in the public-private venture. Representatives of the for-profit company were not available for comment.

Various governments in Miami-Dade contributed $43 million toward the $70 million station, with Brightline covering the difference, according to an October report by the county inspector general investigating delays in the project.

Problems with the planned Tri-Rail station have been known since March, board members said. They were only made public by Abrams Friday during a meeting of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which serves as the Tri-Rail board. Directors said they were stunned to be just learning of the issue.

“We were all shocked. They did not brief us on this,” said Raquel Regalado, a board member and Miami-Dade county commissioner. “I think we can fix this...Whoever is responsible needs to be held accountable.”

If Tri-Rail or Brightline can find a way to make the trains narrower or the platforms wider, there could still be a problem at the downtown station. The trains also could be too heavy for the ramp — known as a “viaduct” — connecting ground-level tracks to the second-story Brightline station.

“The consultant is calling for further study on that,” Abrams said.

In the report, Railroad Consultants wrote Brightline used a multiplier for train loads that was “roughly 90% less than what is required by AREMA,” the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association. Brightline said it used a different standard used by high-speed rail, according to the report, which recommended testing to see if the trains can safely go up and down the ramp.

Delays stretched for years. Brightline needed to implement track safety controls known as Positive Train Control for Tri-Rail service. Brightline also shut down for 20 months during the COVID-19 pandemic, restarting service in November. With PTC installed, Tri-Rail would be getting closer to delivering the promised service.

Billed as the Downtown Miami Link, the nine-mile extension would bring the lower-cost Tri-Rail service to Brightline’s more upscale, for-profit rail line running a parallel route to West Palm Beach, but closer to the coast.

Once Brightline began building its Miami station, elected leaders in Miami and Miami-Dade agreed to pay for what looked like an affordable option to tack on a Tri-Rail platform as well.

Funders of the 2015 agreement to bring Tri-Rail to downtown Miami included Miami-Dade County government ($14 million), Miami ($7 million) and Miami’s Overtown redevelopment agency spending property-tax dollars ($18 million). Tri-Rail, which receives state, county and federal revenues, paid an additional $22 million for the improvements needed to use the existing tracks running to downtown.

Four years late, now the Tri-Rail downtown link faces more delays. Abrams said he couldn’t provide a timetable for how long it would take to get the Brightline station ready for commuter trains. “There’s going to clearly be some delay,” he said.

In an email to board members after Friday’s meeting, Abrams cited a “lapse” on his part for not “disseminating information to the Board in real time” about the alleged defects at the Brightline station and problems that, for now, have left trains unable to use the agency’s signature expansion project.

Carlos Penin, an engineer and member of the Tri-Rail board, said Friday’s disclosure left him questioning what he can trust from Tri-Rail leadership.

“If you lack transparency in an item that large,” he said, “what else are you hiding?”