Tri-Rail in trouble

[thelakelander]

Tri-Rail faces cuts despite rapid growth in ridership numbers.  This gives a look into issues we will have to overcome to successfully get passenger rail back on our tracks.

Despite growing popularity, Tri-Rail faces crippling cuts in service
By Michael Turnbell

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Commuters are forsaking their cars in record numbers to ride Tri-Rail. The trains come more often. And they're running on time for the most part.

Even with so many things going right, Tri-Rail faces crippling cuts in service come October if the three counties cut contributions that cover day-to-day operations.

That means no trains on the weekends or holidays. And 30 fewer trains weekdays.

In the most dire scenario, Tri-Rail could default on a federal grant used to build a second track.

The bottom line: A lot of riders could have to find another way to get to work or school this fall at a time when gasoline prices are eating a bigger chunk of the household budget.

"If they take this away, it's really going to affect people," said Donna Williams, who takes the train to her job at American Airlines' hub at Miami International Airport.

"They're going to be miserable when they get to work or when they get home, if they have to get up earlier or get home later waiting for a later train, or worse, no train at all."

Jack Bond said the train makes it possible to send his three sons, J.B., William and Andrew, from Boynton Beach to magnet schools in West Palm Beach. About 1,000 students ride the train daily to Bak Middle School of the Arts, Dreyfoos School of the Arts and Roosevelt Middle School, all in West Palm Beach, and Lake Worth High School.

"It would be a great hardship for any parent who relies on Tri-Rail to get their kids to school," Bond said. "The train is one of the reasons many parents have been able to take advantage of the educational qualities that the magnet schools offer."

Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties are obliged to each contribute $1.5 million a year to help pay for Tri-Rail's operations, but they have contributed more money as the service has expanded. This year, the counties each sent $4.3 million, matched by the state. Next year, the amount was to increase to $4.5 million.

But Palm Beach County administrators, struggling with plummeting property tax revenues and faced with cutting the county's own bus service, want to trim their share back to $1.5 million with the next budget year that begins in October. That likely will trigger cuts from the other two counties and the state, leading to a loss of $18 million a year.

If that happens, Tri-Rail Executive Director Joseph Giulietti said the weekday schedule would drop from 50 to 20 trains while the entire weekend and holiday slate of 16 trains a day would be eliminated Oct. 1.

"All of our efforts now are focused on convincing the counties to stay on board with us for one more year until we can go back to the Legislature," Giulietti said.

The Florida Department of Transportation has agreed not to cut its subsidy to Tri-Rail if the counties keep their cuts to no more than 5 percent. But it's only a short-term fix.

"We all recognize that this is just buying us time," Jim Wolfe, the Transportation Department's district secretary, told Tri-Rail's board of directors last week.

Giulietti said Tri-Rail can absorb a small drop in funding and still maintain the train's existing schedule by freezing jobs, not filling vacant positions and cutting nonessential travel by administrators.

"When the budgets become final, we'll find how much financial support we can count on from the counties and whether we'll have enough to support a little less service or whether we'll have to do something more dramatic," Giulietti said.

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, Tri-Rail's parent agency, repeatedly has failed to get dedicated funding for the commuter train so it doesn't have to rely on the counties and the state every year for money.

In 2006, the Legislature passed a bill that would have allowed the three counties to collect a $2-per-day fee on rental cars if voters approved. But then-Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed it.

This year, lawmakers considered two bills. One would have shifted money to Tri-Rail from an existing rental car tax. The other would have created a new $2-a-day rental car tax but was part of a larger controversial bill to build a new commuter rail line similar to Tri-Rail between Orlando and Tampa.

Both bills passed the House but not the Senate.

Some question remains whether the Federal Transit Administration will demand its money back if Tri-Rail doesn't honor an agreement to run rush-hour trains every 20 minutes in exchange for $275 million in federal funds used to build a second track. "If there are any changes that affect the grant agreement, we'll have to evaluate those changes at that time," said Velvet Snow, a transit administration spokeswoman.

Loyal riders who stuck with Tri-Rail after putting up with years of frustrating delays and construction wonder if it was all for nothing.

Williams dreads having to go back to driving to work. She was among the masses driving eight years ago, until her car broke down one morning.

A co-worker convinced her to give the commuter train a try. Williams has been riding ever since. "The experience was good. I didn't miss putting up with the traffic," she said.

Now, Williams recruits fellow employees to do the same. Lately, she's been signing up an average of three employees a week.

American Airlines is the largest employer in Tri-Rail's employee discount program. More than 650 American Airlines employees pay the equivalent of a fill-up â€" $60 a month â€" to ride the train to the region's three major airports. Some employees who live as far north as Port St. Lucie drive to Tri-Rail's northernmost station in Mangonia Park and ride the train the rest of the way to work.

The demand for service is so strong that Tri-Rail added two more weekday trains last year for airline employees headed to the Miami airport in the morning and returning home late in the evening.

"For $60 a month, you can't beat that. I have time to read the newspaper or do my coupons," said Caroline Ernst, who rides from Deerfield Beach to the Miami airport. "On the way home, I can read a book or sometimes take a nap. When I get home, I feel refreshed."

Even without factoring in the cost of gasoline, Ernst knows she's saving money by taking the train. She figures she's saving at least $80 a month in SunPass tolls if she had to drive to work via Florida's Turnpike and Miami's Airport Expressway.

Ernst said she's disappointed that Tri-Rail might cut trains after promising to provide better service once the entire corridor had two tracks. But she remains hopeful that a solution can be worked out to keep the trains running.

"In the old days, we'd have to pull off to the side and let [CSX] freight trains or Amtrak pass," Ernst said. "That doesn't happen anymore.

"It would be a shame to waste all the progress that's been made."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbtrain0528sbmay28,0,7493235.story

[thelakelander]

The answer to Tri-Rail's (and every other future rail system in the State) was in the form of a tax on rental cars.  Unfortunately, it died because of personal politics surrounding the Orlando rail deal.

This year, lawmakers considered two bills. One would have shifted money to Tri-Rail from an existing rental car tax. The other would have created a new $2-a-day rental car tax but was part of a larger controversial bill to build a new commuter rail line similar to Tri-Rail between Orlando and Tampa.

[thelakelander]

The car rental tax would had applied for all Florida cities with rail systems.  So if South Florida becomes successful in getting it passed, we can also tap into it.

[Driven1]

That stinks.  I hope there is some way they can find to keep the funding. 

[reednavy]

WTF?!

I absolutely love riding Tri-Rail from KFLL down to the MetroRail center. Milking public transit when you can is the ebst thing you can do. If you plan well, you don't need a rental car at all in Miami.

[Seraphs]

When did JTA become in charge of running Tri-rail?

[Charles Hunter]

When did JTA become in charge of running Tri-rail?

It's not the operator - it's the counties and legislature that aren't providing adequate funding.

[heights unknown]

This is such a travesty and a crying shame; it's hard to believe they are having trouble keeping Tri-Rail, the State's most popular transporation system running.  When I lived in Fort Lauderdale I used to ride the Tri-Rail to work to Deerfield, and sometimes to Miami and then transfer on to Metro-Rail or the bus to South Beach.  Extremely efficient and popular transportation system in South Florida; it's a shame they can't make it work properly or even keep it running as popular as it is.

Heights Unknown

[heights unknown]

When did JTA become in charge of running Tri-rail?

Very funny Seraph; are you serious or just joking?

Heights Unknown