Rail transit foes speak up

At a public meeting, some residents criticized a plan to add transit to the train tracks that run through east side cities.

Posted on Tue, Apr. 18, 2006

BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
llebowitz@herald.com

There may be a groundswell of support for a new commuter rail line that would run through dozens of east side communities in South Florida, but there are also plenty of naysayers.

Just ask Betty Horvath, a 50-year resident of Fort Lauderdale. Horvath thinks it's a bad idea to build a commuter rail system along the Florida East Coast Railroad corridor when, just a few miles to the west, the 16-year-old Tri-Rail still struggles to draw riders.

''If people won't drive the extra couple of miles to get to the Tri-Rail stations, what makes you think they're going to use the FEC lines?'' Horvath told state planners at a public meeting Monday at the Broward Public Library.

"Why did we spend $400 million to double-track Tri-Rail?''

Supporters say mass transit along the FEC corridor would give millions of South Floridians an alternative to driving and take advantage of a redevelopment boom along the tracks east of Interstate 95 from Miami to Jupiter.

When Tri-Rail was being developed in the 1980s to offset congestion while Interstate 95 was being widened, state and local planners coveted the FEC corridor, but railway management at the time refused to sell.

That's how Tri-Rail wound up on the CSX Transportation tracks, which run in the less populated, and more industrial areas west of Interstate 95 from West Palm Beach to Miami International Airport.

The FEC, which last carried passengers in 1968, now says it is willing to share an 85-mile stretch of track from Jupiter to Miami with passenger trains if freight remains a priority.

Unlike Tri-Rail, which runs along a largely industrial and warehouse corridor dominated by I-95, boosters say an eastern train would provide an accessible alternative that is much closer to where people live, work and play.

The FEC corridor would also provide local governments with a redevelopment magnet to entice higher density, transit-oriented, homes, shops and offices.

But that very redevelopment boom has some Broward residents worrying about the future.

''I'm afraid this is going to make it even more difficult for poor people and working people to stay in their houses near the tracks,'' said Cara Campbell of the Broward County Green Party. ``I don't see the wisdom . . .''

The next meetings are set for Wednesday night at the Gwen Margolis Community Center in North Miami.

The hearings are part of a two-year federal planning process that will identify whether a rail system is feasible in the area and then how to potentially pay for it.

Despite the negative comments at Monday's hearing, Florida Department of Transportation planner Scott Seeburger said he has been slightly surprised by the opposite reaction: ``Just how impatient some people are to getting something started on this corridor now.''