Miami, where is the Metrorail expansion we were promised in 2002? (Hialeah: sales, 2015)

[786man]

Quoted from Curbed Miami, 2014:

In the third quarter of 2013, Miami-Dade County used about 75% of the half-cent sales tax hike that was originally approved by voters for Metrorail expansion on lots and lots of expenses that it shouldn't be used for, including (most ironically) road construction, according to the most recent quarterly report of the Citizens' Independent Transportation Trust. The CITT, the body tasked with oversight of the implementation of the People's Transportation Plan since 2002, budgeted millions for roadway improvements, a new traffic signal, bus service and scantily-detailed competitive contract awards, in the last quarter alone.

Of about $8 million in spending, about $3.8 million were possibly designated, albeit indirectly, to Metrorail expansion. These included $482,000 for air quality mitigation for the new Orange Line to the airport, $600,000 for "real-time dynamic message signs" at train stations and $2 million "to provide general land and engineering surveying services." The quarterly report says that a new fleet of Metrorail cars is scheduled for delivery in 2019. (They were originally scheduled for 2015) Maybe that's why so little of the transit surtax money seems to be going to trains.

Squandering the surtax on maintenance and overhead isn't new. The promise that the transit tax would go toward better, smarter and (most importantly) more mass transit has not come anywhere near to pass. If it had, a greatly expanded Metrorail system with new lines criss-crossing the county, would be coming to fruition. When voters were presented with the transit tax proposal by ballot in 2002, they were promised 88.9 miles of new Metrorail lines. A dozen years later, only the 2.4 miles connecting the system with Miami International Airport, have been completed, with nothing under construction and practically nothing in the planning stages.

https://miami.curbed.com/platform/amp/2014/1/28/10150192/miami-getting-shafted-on-money-for-trains?source=images

I ride the Metrorail almist every day to get to MDC Wolfson campus and I noticed that there is ONE new train stockade.

I think another picture I saw when googling "Miami metrorail expansion" would be PERFECT.



image storage server

If anything, the only changes I'd make from this picture is to expand the current Green Line a little more into central Hialeah, and the current Orange Line to the Airport could be changed from Dadeland South-Airport to FIU-Miami Beach Convention Center, with stops at Dolphin Mall, Doral, MIA, Civic Center, Midtown Miami/Wynwood/Design District & Alton Road. And the Biscayne Boulevard, Kendall & South Dade lines are self-explanatory, they make 100% sense. If details can be ironed out with Broward County officials, I could also see the Biscayne Boulevard line being extended all the way up to downtown Fort Lauderdale & the 27th Ave line extended up to Miramar/Pembroke Pines, perhaps even up to Sawgrass Mills/BB&T Center. Alas, this is all wishful thinking. What do you guys think?

[Bobdreamz]

$313 million dollars was paid upfront for the new Metrorail cars which are being built at a plant in Medley.
As for your question the answer is in the article you posted above :

"Squandering the surtax on maintenance and overhead"

Miami-Dade county should have asked voters for a full penny instead of a half penny sales tax to fund not only Metrorail expansion but continuing maintenance and overhead so they diverted funds from that to keep the whole system going.

Previous attempts to pass a transit sales tax failed so they went for the half cent instead.
There are ways that a expansion can be funded though.

[transitfan]

Originally Posted by 786man

If anything, the only changes I'd make from this picture is to expand the current Green Line a little more into central Hialeah, and the current Orange Line to the Airport could be changed from Dadeland South-Airport to FIU-Miami Beach Convention Center, with stops at Dolphin Mall, Doral, MIA, Civic Center, Midtown Miami/Wynwood/Design District & Alton Road. And the Biscayne Boulevard, Kendall & South Dade lines are self-explanatory, they make 100% sense. If details can be ironed out with Broward County officials, I could also see the Biscayne Boulevard line being extended all the way up to downtown Fort Lauderdale & the 27th Ave line extended up to Miramar/Pembroke Pines, perhaps even up to Sawgrass Mills/BB&T Center. Alas, this is all wishful thinking. What do you guys think?

A Biscayne Blvd line might duplicate BirghtLine when that line is extended to Miami later this year. However, Brightline will operate non-stop from downtown FTL to downtown MIA, while a Metrorail line of course would have intermediate stops. OTOH, I heard that eventually, there will be a branch of Tri-Rail that will operate over the FEC/Brightline tracks to directly serve downtown Miami. I don't know if Tri-Rail would also be non-stop or would have intermediate stations (I would suggest Dania Beach,Hollywood, maybe Hallandale, Aventura, FIU Biscayne Bay Campus and some others).

[bale002]

Miami, where is the Metrorail expansion we were promised in 2002?

Now they're telling us that the money went here: fare-free trolley buses

Also here is some more news, quite expected, about the latest attempt to save face on the Stupid Plan.

[boxus]

It went to everything but what it was suppose to go, that is why I will not support any future tax until they spend the money they get now correctly.

Miami keeps wanting to attract everyone and their brother, but do not bother to address a transit system that all in all, was the same when the area had 20% less population.

[valicky]

Allowing for a full penny tax vs. a half penny would just mean twice as much money being squandered. No thanks.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by bale002

Now they're telling us that the money went here: fare-free trolley buses.

I don't know what you mean by "now" they're telling us that. It's been written on the sides of City of Miami trolleys for quite some time. Relatedly, I think that the "free" trolley systems that several municipalities have instituted have been a great way to spend that transit tax money. I've used the trolleys in Miami Beach, the City of Miami, and Coral Gables, and each time that I've been on one, there havebeen plenty of people taking advantage of this municipal resource.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda

I don't know what you mean by "now" they're telling us that. It's been written on the sides of City of Miami trolleys for quite some time. Relatedly, I think that the "free" trolley systems that several municipalities have instituted have been a great way to spend that transit tax money. I've used the trolleys in Miami Beach, the City of Miami, and Coral Gables, and each time that I've been on one, there havebeen plenty of people taking advantage of this municipal resource.

Did you read the article?

Anyway, I agree that trolley buses are a better, low-cost interim solution than super-expensive obsolete technology, but that's not the way the tax increase was sold back then.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by bale002

Did you read the article?

Yes, every word. Why? As I said, this isn't a "new" explanation or one that they're just coming up with now.

Originally Posted by bale002

Anyway, I agree that trolley buses are a better, low-cost interim solution than super-expensive obsolete technology, but that's not the way the tax increase was sold back then.

I agree. I'm just saying that I think that the trolley system that each municipality has implemented is a good use for some of the money.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda

Yes, every word. Why? As I said, this isn't a "new" explanation or one that they're just coming up with now.

I interpreted certain wording in the article that certain county and local government leaders are explicitly agreeing to sell or emphasize this to the public as part of the effort to convince voters to approve another "transportation" tax increase, even if perhaps it is old news as you are saying.

Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda

I agree. I'm just saying that I think that the trolley system that each municipality has implemented is a good use for some of the money.

I am hopeful that new cutting-edge technology, combined with common-sense low-cost technology, will save the day, so to speak - analogous to the leap from horses to automobiles in the 1910s - and more specifically save the expense of re-hashing 1950s technology that is becoming and could become completely obsolete way before costs are amortized.

In any case, I think most agree that tax-payers cannot trust these people to make most effective use of the money, especially in view of the current so-called SMART plan, which is actually a Stupid Plan and at any rate is flailing in super-expensive consultant study after consultant study and in committee meeting after committee meeting, when trolley buses and synchronized traffic lights, for example, can do a much more effective job than their constant spending and jaw-boning on last century's ideas and designs, whole story which has become really appalling.