Miami's Downtown Train Hub Begins to Take Shape

MiamiCentral, the depot for All Aboard Florida's new intercity express Brightline train service to West Palm Beach, and eventually Orlando, "just received its first train beam," reports Sean Stewart-Muniz for The Real Deal, South Florida.

General contractor Suffolk Construction is speeding toward MiamiCentral’s expected completion date of mid-year 2017, when the first segment of the train service — between Miami and West Palm Beach — is scheduled to open for business.

The MiamiCentral construction site as of October 2015, courtesy The Real Deal, South Florida.

The Real Deal's Francisco Alvarado reported on October 22, 2015 about a land swap that "Miami commissioners signed off on that allows All Aboard Florida to expand its MiamiCentral project and gives the city some of the space it needs to build a fire station."

On YouTube, watch "MiamiCentral Time Lapse" to see it "rise from the ground up," then take a MiamiCentral Tour. See the two towers that will house 800 new residential, for-rent apartments in two towers that are planned above the depot. 

"The project is split into two sections: the nine-acre transit hub in downtown Miami that’s being built alongside the existing Government Center Metromover Station, plus a separate 12-story tower with office space, parking and a major grocery tenant," adds Stewart-Muniz.

Four transit systems come together at MiamiCentral

Passengers alighting from Brightline will be able to board the 4.4-mile electrically-powered Metromover, a fully automated people mover system, that connects with Metrorail, the nation's tenth largest heavy rail system by ridership, at Government Center. The station is served by multiple Metrobus routes.

According to Progressive Railroading, "the first Siemens-built trainset (is) set to arrive in West Palm Beach, Fla., in fall of this year." The trainsets were ordered in September 2014.

Grade crossings

The diesel-powered trains will travel at speeds up to 125 mph. An "All Aboard Florida Gate Crossing Demonstration" shows a 7-car train, with locomotives at each end, traveling at 68 mph. Total gate down time: 49 seconds.

Historical precedent

A 2014 post indicates that Brightline will be the first privately built passenger rail line time since "(t)he last private passenger rail in the United States closed in 1983."

"Can new train service between Miami and Orlando be a model for the rest of the country?," asked Henry Gabar for CityLab?

"You'd have to go back over 100 years to find a significant investment in private intercity rail in the U.S.," says David Levinson, a transportation analyst at the University of Minnesota. 

Plans are being considered to extend Brightline from Orlando to Jacksonville, 141 miles north, reports Mike Seemuth for The Real Deal.

All Aboard Florida is a wholly owned subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries LLC.