Despite lingering questions about funding, Tri-Rail trains are expected to begin operating between downtown Miami and Palm Beach County by 2017, the commuter rail service’s chief said Wednesday.
“It’s going to happen,” said Jack Stephens, executive director of Broward-based South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, SFRTA. “We’re looking at having it operational in the first or second quarter of 2017.”
The authority is still seeking a large chunk of the funding for the project from the Florida Department of Transportation. But Stephens’ statements, in interviews with el Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald and at a Beacon Council transportation conference in Miami on Wednesday, marked the first concrete indication that the Tri-Rail plan to bring its passenger trains to downtown Miami will be a reality. Previously, Stephens had spoken about the plan optimistically, but made it clear that the service had not secured total funding to implement it.