Metro Jacksonville

Community => Transportation, Mass Transit & Infrastructure => Topic started by: spuwho on November 13, 2012, 04:44:50 PM

Title: New Miami Train Station Revealed
Post by: spuwho on November 13, 2012, 04:44:50 PM
Courtesy of Curbed Miami, posted here are the proposed layouts of the new Miami Train Station serving "All Aboard Florida". Good use of urban design? Is it well integrated into the Miami urban core?

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2012/11/07/all-aboard-florida-station-layouts.php (http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2012/11/07/all-aboard-florida-station-layouts.php)

(http://miami.curbed.com/uploads/Screen%20Shot%202012-11-07%20at%204.26.41%20PM-thumb.png)
(http://miami.curbed.com/uploads/Screen%20Shot%202012-11-02%20at%201.09.29%20PM-thumb.jpg)
(http://miami.curbed.com/uploads/Screen%20Shot%202012-11-02%20at%201.09.21%20PM-thumb.jpg)
Title: Re: New Miami Train Station Revealed
Post by: thelakelander on November 13, 2012, 09:18:57 PM
Looks like better use of a physically constrained urban property than our JRTC layout.  It appears to have great connectivity with Metrorail and Metromover plus elevating the tracks allows for integrated parking and keeping more cross streets open.  To round it off, it looks like there will be a lot of square footage/air rights dedicated for TOD.
Title: Re: New Miami Train Station Revealed
Post by: spuwho on November 20, 2012, 09:21:42 PM
The Miami Herald editorial board has officially endorsed All Aboard Florida

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/13/3095671/fec-all-aboard-florida-to-offer.html (http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/13/3095671/fec-all-aboard-florida-to-offer.html)

OUR OPINION: FEC promises exciting passenger train service between Miami and Orlando

BY THE MIAMI HERALD EDITORIAL
HERALDED@MIAMIHERALD.COM
As the PortMiami tunnel gets built to take trucks off Biscayne Boulevard and rail lines get spiffed up to bring port cargo to the Hialeah area for distribution centers north, there’s an exciting new passenger rail project in the works that will add to downtown Miami’s resurgence without weighing down our roadways with more cars.

All Aboard Florida, the proposed passenger rail service from Miami to Orlando, with stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, promises to add a new dimension to downtown Miami’s vitality. Florida East Coast Industries, the company that began as Henry Flagler’s railroad, has big plans to connect two major tourist destinations as early as 2014.

In an environmental report to federal regulators, the FEC details a 21st century station on nine acres in downtown Miami that eventually would include residential and office towers and a hotel, lots of shops and parking for about 1,000 cars. The elevated tracks would stop four stories high, connecting to rail lines on Northwest Eighth Street, an area now used mostly as a parking lot between Government Center and the Overtown Metrorail stations.

With the platform and a portion of the tracks built in the air there would be open access to busy local traffic going east-west without train interruptions, and it would offer an eye-popping view for arriving passengers who would travel on the FEC above the existing Metromover at Northwest Fifth Street.

Unlike previous fast-train proposals, this is a private, for-profit endeavor that won’t require state or federal funding. The FEC trains wouldn’t travel as fast as the high-speed rail proposal that Gov. Rick Scott turned down from the federal government two years ago, but the travel time â€" at three hours between Miami and Orlando â€" would remain competitive, attracting tourists and locals alike.

Amtrak already provides train travel between Miami and Orlando twice a day, but its frequent stops make the trip a five-hour adventure. FEC plans to offer hourly service and shave the travel time by two hours.

Drivers need not worry about getting bogged down at train stops. The FEC passenger cars should take less than a minute â€" 52 seconds, according to the FEC report â€" to clear street crossings. That’s about what it takes to wait at a stoplight for the green.

There are steps to go to ensure the project gets the nod from regulators looking at environmental impacts, but, once approved, travelers can expect a topnotch experience, FEC officials told The Herald’s Editorial Board recently.

Taken together with the Tri-Rail commuter rail service between Palm Beach to a metro stop near Hialeah, and the potential for sharing tracks with FEC to add more stops to Tri-Rail, South Florida is heading in the right direction.


Title: Re: New Miami Train Station Revealed
Post by: spuwho on November 20, 2012, 09:24:22 PM
Florida Chamber of Commerce made their endorsement today in an op-ed.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/15/3099378/all-aboard-florida-is-a-wise-investment.html (http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/15/3099378/all-aboard-florida-is-a-wise-investment.html)

All Aboard Florida is a wise investment 

In 2014, Florida will surpass New York to become the third most populated state in the nation.

As Florida prepares for how an additional six million new people will impact transportation in the next 20 years, we must plan better than we did for the last six million.

Currently, Florida is the third largest consumer of energy in the nation, and the demand for more energy will grow just as our population increases in the coming years. While, nationwide, transportation accounts for 60 percent of energy consumption, passenger rail consumes less than one percent.

For the Florida East Coast Corridor, passenger rail has long been a part of South Florida’s transportation planning process. That’s because it is safe, energy efficient, cost effective, convenient and it offers great potential for meeting the long-term challenges in transportation.

If Florida were a country, we would be the 19th largest economy in the world. But for our economy to return to the number one private sector job creator position in the United States and compete globally, Florida needs additional investments in our infrastructure.

All Aboard Florida has taken important steps toward moving Florida’s intermodal transportation network forward by creating up to 1,000 permanent jobs funded exclusively with private capital and at no cost to taxpayers. This is important to meeting South Florida’s current and future transportation demands.

At the Florida Chamber of Commerce, we are pleased to see All Aboard Florida’s intercity passenger rail system moving forward as a wise investment in our state’s infrastructure and a boost to our economy.

Title: Re: New Miami Train Station Revealed
Post by: spuwho on November 26, 2012, 10:26:58 PM
FEC began a major ROW maintenance operation north of Miami.  A perhaps exuberant watcher thinks it AAF related.

(http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/50acf9dff92ea12f8503a0e9/IMG_0377.jpg)

These construction crews were spotted yesterday on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks in Miami Shores, as they slowly made their way up and down the FEC main line. Construction activity has been seen on this stretch of the line for at least the last week. When asked if they were working on the FEC's new passenger rail service All Aboard Florida or just general maintenance the answer was "I don't know. They don't tell us these things."