MIAMI — Beginning this Saturday, Jan. 27, South Florida’s West Palm Beach-Miami International Airport Tri-Rail service will be connected to downtown Miami with 13 weekday round-trip shuttle trains and 12 round trips on the weekends.
Since the service’s Jan. 13 launch, the commuter authority has been gradually ramping up service to Brightline’s MiamiCentral facility [see “Tri-Rail sets date to launch …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 5, 2024]. Six round trips the first weekend expanded to seven weekday round trips through Jan. 19, and 10 round trips through Jan. 26. During the “soft launch” interval with changing frequencies, separate Downtown Miami Link online schedules were issued.
Now that the full complement of shuttles is set for an extended period, Tri-Rail has issued an integrated printable timetable showing which trains to and from West Palm Beach make connections at Metrorail Transfer to MiamiCentral. This is a substantial improvement from the separate shuttle schedules of the introductory period.
Tri-Rail spokesman Victor Garcia says the shuttle has averaged 150 passengers per day during the soft-launch period. Passengers traveling to Miami Central have access to downtown’s free MetroMover, a 4.4-mile, 21-station people mover system serving downtown through a series of interconnected loops. One station is adjacent to MiamiCentral.
At some point this year, Tri-Rail intends to replace the shuttle transfer by diverting about half of the 25 weekday trips between West Palm Beach and Miami Airport to MiamiCentral. Those trains make 16 intermediate stops.
The regular Tri-Rail fare for the 1-hour, 55-minute West Palm-MiamiCentral journey is $8.75. Brightline’s 18 daily trips between the two locations — which use a different West Palm stop — are scheduled either at 1 hour, 15 minutes or 1 hour, 20 minutes, depending on whether or not a stop is made at Boca Raton in addition to Fort Lauderdale and Aventura. Brightline Smart fares vary by departure. As of today (Jan. 26), they range from $29 to $54 for Monday, Jan. 29, with two trains sold out.
For passengers traveling to or from Orlando out of TriRail stations south of Fort Lauderdale, connection times between Tri-Rail inbound and Brightline outbound trains at MiamiCentral (and vice-versa) average about 45 minutes. The current Brightline schedule is available here.
The operators utilize separate boarding areas and platforms at MiamiCentral.
