MIAMI — Amtrak ‘s decision not to move to a station adjacent to Miami International airport was based on estimates that relocating its existing station at Hialeah would generate an additional 20,000 riders and $2 million in yearly revenue but would cost $5 million annually to execute, according to information it released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
However, the 4-mile move to the Miami Intermodal Center, with its access to rental cars, dining, and access to public transportation would have saved a net one-time $15.5 million expense to retrofit the Hialeah facility with Americans with Disability Act improvements.
Public radio station WLRN made the document request. Details of a 1997 contract and 2013 amendment to that agreement between Amtrak and the Florida Department of Transportation were redacted, the station reports, because “Amtrak claimed much of that information was trade secrets.”
Trains News Wire asked Amtrak last month a series of explicit questions regarding its reasons for not moving to the Intermodal Center [see “Passenger convenience, Amtrak relevance …,” News Wire, Jan. 16, 2025]. The company responded only with a previously reported letter from Jim Blair, Amtrak’s assistant vice president of host railroads, explaining to the Florida Department of Transportation why it was backing out.
The accounting Amtrak was compelled to provide under the FOIA request shows that its estimate of $3 million in annual losses fromn making equipment moves from its yard near Hialeah are offset by the $21.8 million expense of retrofitting the 1970s-era station there. The document says an extra $6.4 million of improvements are necessary at Miami Intermodal. What isn’t explicitly revealed is that Amtrak’s ADA improvements are paid out of a separate funding category that does not impact train operations.
The bulk of the additional annual expense estimate, $2.6 million for train and engine crew labor and $1.4 million for onboard service labor, is based on the additional time to deadhead the Silver Meteor and Floridian-Silver Star equipment to and from Hialeah. That appears to assume that onboard service crews would not relocate to Miami Intermodal.
The ridership-increase and revenue-gains would clearly depend on how the new location is promoted to prospective travelers. Ready to fill Amtrak’s general promotional void is the Miami-based Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, which oversees a half-cent local option transportation surtax approved by Miami-Dade voters in 2002. The group, which has been vocal in improving public mobility options, has contacted elected officials and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in an attempt to get Amtrak to reverse its decision.
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