Archive for the 'North Corridor' Category

The MDT North Corridor Saga Continues, Part 1

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on February 4, 2008
in FTA, Harpal Kapoor, MDT, Metrorail, Miami-Dade Transit, North Corridor and Orange Line
. 8 Comments

In case you’ve spent the past couple of days living in a cave (or more likely, not paying attention to local transit news) there is trouble brewing on the horizon (by horizon I clearly mean this week) over at MDT. I know we haven’t touched up on MDT in a while, but we’re long overdue for some updates.

Last week, the FTA dealt a serious blow to the next major phase of metrorail expansion, the north corridor, by downgrading the once favorable rating of the project. The new Medium-low status doesn’t quite kill the project yet, but it places some serious funding hurdles in the way, which, if overcome, will set the project back by 6 months to a year (in MDT terms: we’re realistically looking at a 2+ year delay if funding is eventually secured.) Not all hope is lost yet on the nearly 10 mile long corridor; the FTA is choosing to downgrade the status of the project because of the “county’s long-range financial forecasting” rather than ridership projections or cost benefits of the corridor itself. The FTA seems to be in favor of the project but is rather questioning the ability and leadership of MDT.

Could the North Corridor be Threatened by Juvenile Politics?

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on November 6, 2007
in MDT, Metrorail, Miami Dade College, Miami Herald, Miami-Dade County and North Corridor
. 5 Comments

If you read the Herald yesterday, you probably saw this article. It’s not so hard to believe given the bizarre political culture of Miami-Dade, but the proposed North Corridor extension of the Metrorail may be in trouble.

Apparently, the administration of Miami-Dade College North Campus has been working with county transit planners for the last three years to bring not only a station on campus, but a gym/wellness center, a 2000-space parking garage, a conference center, classrooms, and a bookstore. However, all of this would have forced a $26 million relocation of the US Army Reserve Armory at NW 27th Ave and NW 119th St, which the county cannot afford. Furthermore, it appears that these expenses were never even taken into account in the Environmental Impact Statement given to Washington, which means any federal aid allocated to the county for the North Corridor would not include these MDC expenses. From the Lebowitz’s Streetwise column:

And here’s where it gets really strange. All of the letter-writing traffic is one-way, with Vicente (of MDT) memorializing his understanding of what agreements were reached in these meetings.

Nobody from Transit ever responded — even though the agency clearly couldn’t afford to make these ludicrous promises to the college and hope to compete against dozens of other U.S. cities for $700 million to $825 million in matching federal funds for the North Corridor.

Transit’s files are curiously thin on the issue. And three key players from Transit’s side of the talks are no longer with the agency. One retired last year. Bradley was fired in March and one of his top aides a few weeks later.

Yet, records show that Transit was already warning federal regulators in early 2006 that it might not be able to afford the armory relocation, forcing the agency to consider the station closer to the MDC-North main gate.

Why Transit couldn’t brace Vicente with the same candor about the armory site in early ‘06 remains a mystery. And someone definitely should have told him, in writing, that the agency couldn’t build that massive conference center-garage without endangering the federal funding.

This is upsetting for several reasons. First, this was supposed to be the next expansion of Metrorail, before the East-West extension or anything in Kendall. MDT is this close to receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to help finance the expensive project. Keep in mind, the transit market is extremely competitive nationwide as cities everywhere are scrambling to make up for lost time and do the right thing by improving their public transportation systems. At the same time, federal funds are shamefully low, which means Miami-Dade is very fortunate to be in the its current position. As Lebowitz says in his column, redrawing the route or ceding to MDC’s demands is totally infeasible right now because of high costs, wasted time, and the potential for jeopardizing federal aid.

It’s also upsetting because the whole thing is just so juvenile. This is the kind of thing that just cannot happen at this level of government, especially when dealing with billion dollar capital projects and $800 million subsidies, not to mention the future of Miami-Dade County.

MDT Planning Dementia

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on May 1, 2007
in Metrorail, Miami Intermodal Center, Miami-Dade Transit, North Corridor, PTP and Urban Planning
. 7 Comments
I opted to skip out on writing on last week’s revelation on the progress of the north corridor thinking that I’d have enough time this week to cover the story; little did I know that my week would quickly become so complicated, but I’ve finally found some time to address the issue.

MDT has gained federal approval to begin land acquisition for the next branch of the metrorail line. No, I’m not talking about the much needed east-west extension, but the north extension, rising along 27th avenue from the current Northside station to Dolphin stadium adjacent to the county line. Despite the fact that the east-west corridor was originally planned in the 1980’s, the north corridor has somehow taken precedent over the more vital link. The seven proposed stations along the $1.3 Billion, 9.5 miles North line include: a second ridiculously close northside station, MDC North Campus, Opa Locka (just out of reach of the airport), 163 St and the Palmetto, 183 St and Miami Gardens Drive, Dolphin Stadium, and Calder Race Course at County line.

I am obviously disturbed that the North extension is proceeding before the even more crucial east-west corridor is constructed. What irks me most is that MDT is spending millions of PTP money to construct yet another N-S rail link, even though the line would essentially parallel the existing Tri-Rail route. At the same time, the SFECC is working to provide a third N-S rail link, funded by the FDOT, along the FEC corridor, while the USDOT is working on a plan to add managed lanes to I-95, despite a multi million dollar unused FDOT project which sought to add a controversial yet proven Ramp Metering system. Seems unreasonable? I think so, especially when it becomes apparent that our layers of government are effectively working against each other to solve a common problem.

I hate to see things in such a grim manner, but I can’t foresee the north corridor garnering enough riders to justify its’ construction. With competing government entities working to improve existing rail and road routes, the north corridor is seemingly becoming the next white elephant of the metrorail system. On the plus side, it will connect Dolphin stadium with a direct transit source which should garner us at least 7 weekends of extensive use (twice that when UM finally heads North too.) Aside from the northern 2 stations, however, the southern five are awkwardly placed at best, running across mainly industrial and single family home neighborhoods; areas generally not geared to handle the addition of such a major transit line.

My main concern is the $800 Million we’re working to receive from the US government. Considering this is the first project to be partially funded by the PTP, we need to construct a line that will generate the ridership and daily passenger use which will help us to further guarantee more federal subsides for our remaining metrorail lines. A failure so early into the PTP could effectively jeopardize federal funding for the east-west corridor, Baylink, or any other major transit route in the county. And, with so many other cities vying for the same funds while planning considerably cheaper projects using LRT or streetcars, the cost benefit ratio for such a large project will be hard to justify…

Update: Speaking of funding issues…