The Transit Advocates of Florida recently submitted this editorial. If you have any comments, suggestions, or articles you would like to submit, feel free to contact us: movemiami@gmail.com.
Passenger Rail in Florida is vital to the economic future of this state. The federal government has presented a tremendous opportunity for states to leverage their money for rail corridors. Locally in the Miami metropolitan area both Tri-Rail and Metro Rail are both suffering from a lack of support for maintenance and new corridor development. Statewide rail corridors have been studied since Governor Lawton Chiles’ administration before being undercut by the Bush administration.
I urge you to support dedicated funding for Florida’s passenger rail service through the state legislature. This includes existing services such as Tri-Rail that have shown that passenger rail service in Florida is vital to the economy of a region. Tri-Rail ridership has surged as facilities have been upgraded and double tracking allows consistent train schedules and capacity upgrades. The state would never build a one-lane road and ask cars to please wait on the side every few miles to allow others to pass.
Regional rail is not for the local transit agencies to fund or run. These are regional systems using different technologies over larger areas. Additionally a state agency similar to the Turnpike Enterprise should be formed to create the Florida High Speed Rail network. Lastly local transit projects should be prioritized to link into these systems and create an interconnected grid of passenger rail for Floridians.
Please support dedicated funding for RAIL IN FLORIDA. Our state and localities competitive future depends on it.
Send a message of support for dedicated funding to your elected officials in Tallahassee, log onto www.tri-rail.com/FundOrFail
Sincerely,
Transit Advocates of Florida
2 Responses to A Message From the Transit Advocates of Florida
Leave a Reply
Contact Us!
Planetizen- Going, Going, Gone: High Plains Drains its Water Supply May 21, 2013Years of record drought and more intensive farming are draining the High Plains Aquifer, distressing farmers from Colorado to Texas. Rural communities are suffering from dwindling water supplies. […]
- Syracuse Confronts 'Most Important Civic Decision in 60 Years' May 20, 2013To demolish, or not to demolish? As Syracuse considers what to do with its aged elevated highway, special interests are mobilizing to prevent tearing down the crumbling I-81 viaduct and replacing it with an urban boulevard, says David M. Rubin. […]
- 54 Arts Projects Awarded Creative Placemaking Grants May 20, 2013ArtPlace America has announced the 54 recipients (out of over 1200 applicants) for its most recent round of creative placemaking grants. The $15.2 million in grants will support projects in 44 communities and a statewide project in Connecticut. […]
- Minister Reins in Mumbai's Haphazard Development Controls; Will the City's Skyline Suffer? May 20, 2013The chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra (home to Mumbai) is pushing to rationalize the region's density controls, which had been prone to abuse by developers. Some fear the controls will result in more homogenous designs. […]
- Poverty's Sprawling Tentacles May 20, 2013From 2000-2011 the number of poor Americans living in the suburbs increased at a rate double that of the country's cities. The result is that more poor people now live in the suburbs than in cities. A new book examines this troubling trend. […]
- 10 Exemplary Approaches to Station Integration May 20, 2013Different contexts call for different approaches to inserting new transit stations into existing urban environments. From iconic statement to net-zero depot, Ron Nyren looks at 10 stations built recently in cities across the world. […]
- The Urban Diary as a City-Dweller's Tool May 20, 2013Chuck Wolfe champions the 'urban diary' tool as a universal means to understand the city around us. […]
- Rush to Rebuild Could Cause Long-Term Damage to NY/NJ Beaches May 20, 2013Just seven months ago Hurricane Sandy damaged 94 percent of New Jersey's beaches and eroded dozens of miles of coastline in New York. As waterfront communities rush to rebuild before summer, some fear disastrous long-term consequences. […]
- How Miami Lost Its Way to a Transit-Rich Future May 20, 2013Forty years ago, Dade County officials sketched a vision for a paradigm shift away from highways and towards a multi-model transportation system for the area. Four decades onward, highway expansion is alive and well in Miami-Dade. What happened? […]
- Cities Gain a Brain; But Will They Lose Their Souls? May 20, 2013In the quest to improve efficiency and effectiveness, "smart" technologies are helping cities become more intelligent machines. But a growing chorus fears the side effects of increased privatization, surveillance, and technological sophistication. […]
- Going, Going, Gone: High Plains Drains its Water Supply May 21, 2013
- Green Mobility Network
- An error has occurred, which probably means the feed is down. Try again later.
How very true, I sent the email. But call your county commissioner, write emails to them as well and contact the county mayor and tell him you demand passenger rail.
Passenger rail? You mean create an FEC commuter rail? I think that would attract more users. However, unless it has the word “tunnel” in its title, I don’t believe the county mayor is really interested.