Passenger convenience, Amtrak relevance in market big losers in torpedoed Miami station agreement: Analysis

MIAMI — How much money Amtrak was willing to pay and the Florida Department of Transportation was willing to accept for use of the Miami Intermodal Center headhouse was apparently the main sticking point in a years-long impasse that ended when the passenger carrier notified FDOT in November that it would not move its South Florida terminus to a facility adjoining Miami International Airport.

Apparently, because although an Amtrak spokeswoman forwarded the rejection letter it sent to the state, and FDOT issued a statement purporting to explain its actions, both parties declined to respond to specific questions Trains News Wire posed after the decision was reported [see “Amtrak ends plan to move …,” News Wire, Dec. 30, 2024] .

In the Nov. 19, 2024, letter terminating negotiations, Jim Blair, Amtrak’s assistant vice president of host railroads, says, “The servicing requirements of these trains, and the additional costs associated with operations to and from the Miami Intermodal Center, ADA-related modifications (such as the removal of mini-high platforms and signage reconfiguration) and interior outfitting weighed heavily in our decision.”

What else prompted the decision beside cost and the operational inconvenience of executing a 4-mile back-up move from the Hialeah Maintenance Facility adjacent to Amtrak’s current station?

News Wire asked Amtrak and FDOT the following questions:

— Did Amtrak develop data on potential increased patronage and revenue if the Silver Meteor and Floridian were moved to a location where rental cars and local public transportation were directly available?

— Do you have an estimate of the fixed annual and variable costs that Amtrak would incur if it moved from Hialeah to the Miami Intermodal Center?

Blair’s letter says, “Amtrak will advance our alternative plan, implementing ADA and other facility improvements at the current Hialeah site. That work is expected to begin in Spring 2025 and continue through at least June, 2028.”

We asked:

— Other than Americans with Disabilities Act improvements, what are elements of the “alternative plan?”

— How much will this plan cost and why will it take so long to implement?

— Are there any immediate plans to improve connectivity and local transportation at Amtrak’s current Hialeah station?

In its statement to News Wire, FDOT says it “has diligently worked toward reaching a mutually acceptable agreement to bring Amtrak to the Miami Intermodal Center (MIC). Significant progress has been made and mutual agreement has been made in resolving most terms, except for the annual fee for the use of the headhouse, which required consideration for costs borne by the state in addition to future costs for Amtrak operating at the MIC. The department is statutorily required to implement fair market rent value for the MIC and has remained consistent in our communication efforts with all parties.”

The statement adds, “The Department is not aware of any additional transportation service improvements beyond what is already planned by the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation & Public Works, however FDOT remains committed to supporting the Miami Intermodal Center as the central transportation hub for Miami-Dade.”

Article 6 of the 2013 modification to the 1997 Amtrak-FDOT service agreement, obtained by News Wire, states, “Either party may submit a dispute to arbitration to a disinterested person experienced in railroad operations for final and binding arbitration,” but neither organization wanted to pursue that remedy. It may not have mattered, because of FDOT’s “fair market rent value” requirement regardless of benefits that might accrue to the traveling public.

Station has ‘potential,’ but not for long distance

The Amtrak letter concludes, “while we were unable to make an economic and operational case for our long-distance operations, we believe there is strong potential to incorporate the MIC into future state-sponsored Amtrak intercity corridor service.

“The MIC’s modern exterior, and close proximity to other regional and international transportation options makes it extremely well suited to such use. Our hope is that as Florida’s long-range vision for intercity passenger rail continues to advance, Amtrak and the Miami Intermodal Center can play a principal role in that future.”

Essentially, this is Amtrak’s way of saying that only if the state pays it to run a regional train of less than 750 miles would the Intermodal Center’s positive attributes overcome the cost negatives.

Indeed, before the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008’s train length demarcation was legislated (with guidance from Amtrak management), the state did sponsor a daytime Miami-Tampa round trip. The Silver Palm operated between 1982 and 1985 until state funding was withdrawn, though the train name resurfaced from 1996 to 2004 as a Tampa-Miami extension of the Palmetto beyond Savannah.  

Florida could certainly benefit from another frequency that partially utilizes the stations, tracks, and personnel of the Silver Meteor/Floridian to link Pensacola and Tallahassee in the Panhandle as the Sunset Limited once did. But the chances of that happening are exactly zero, primarily because privately operated Miami-Orlando Brightline service has demonstrated the standard for what frequency, modern equipment, stunning facilities, and inviting onboard service can accomplish.

The decision Amtrak made to stay at — and incur the expense of remodeling — its outdated, remote Hialeah facility rather than move is the type of benefit-versus-cost issue members of Amtrak’s reconstituted Board of Directors might have chosen to evaluate. After almost a decade of dickering, however, management decided to capitulate before the new Board got an opportunity to weigh in.