Tri-Rail budget crunch goes beyond subsidy —state cuts money to run the railroad

[thelakelander]

Bad enough that we have a stumbling block with JTA being competent enough to plan, implement and operate a future commuter rail system. Well you can put the nail in the coffin of that bleak dream if the state is going to kill Tri-Rail in South Florida...

Since 2013, the state has paid at least $42 million a year to run a South Florida railroad.

Now, Florida officials have hit upon a better way to run a railroad: Let three South Florida counties pay for it.

In a stunning setback after the fiscal year began July 1, the Florida Department of Transportation cut the money it pays to maintain and operate 80 miles of track for Amtrak passenger trains, CSX freight trains and the Tri-Rail South Florida commuter service.

Instead of $42.1 million, the minimum set in state law, FDOT says it needs to pay only $15 million. But the gap is even greater as the state had been prepared to pay $62 million this year.

If the counties don't step up to fill the gap or state lawmakers force FDOT to reconsider, the agency that the state set up to run the railroad in the 1980s, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, will cease to exist in July 2027.

It's not just subsidizing the commuter rail system that links Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, but, rather, paying to operate and maintain the rail line, which the state owns, SFRTA Chairperson and Palm Beach County Commissioner Marci Woodward said.

"This is equivalent to them saying, 'We run a bus on I-95 so, well, now you have to pay for the maintenance of I-95,'" Woodward said at an Aug. 26 Palm Beach County Commission workshop.

Full article: https://www.wlrn.org/transportation/2025-09-05/tri-rail-budget-crunch-goes-beyond-subsidy-state-cuts-money-to-run-the-railroad

[jaxlongtimer]

Republican officials are destroying this country faster than any foreign enemy could.  If we started tomorrow, it could take 100 years to undo all the damage, and some of it, like our environment, maybe never.  China, Russia, Iran, North Korea... probably can't believe their good luck that Trump and his ilk are running ruining this nation on a wholesale basis.

Why support mass transit for the masses?  Likewise, affordable healthcare, housing, education, food or a clean environment, climate change, etc.  What is important is that billionaires get major tax breaks and developers get big incentives and infrastructure subsidies.  Everyone else be damned.