The Palm Beach Post

Tri-Rail needs to keep on studying

Tri-Rail has been studying a plan to stretch service from its terminus in Mangonia Park, just north of West Palm Beach, to the county's busy and vital VA Medical Center, three miles to the northwest.

They should keep studying.

Our veterans and their families are worthy of every service and convenienc­e we can afford them. But “afford” is the key word here.

The projected price tag, $94 million, plus as much as $5.5 million a year in operating costs, begs that Palm Beach County transporta­tion officials first consider other options for the near and long terms. After all, $100 million could buy a lot of luxury, disability­equipped buses, for example, without having to go infrastruc­ture-heavy on CSX rail adjustment­s, road crossings, a station and a Beeline Highway-jumping pedestrian bridge — for a six-minute ride for 700 people a day.

The rail link could well turn out to be a great idea, if sufficient federal funding for constructi­on and operations materializ­ed. One possibilit­y would be for the Palm Beach County Commission to ask voters to bump up the sales tax to generate money for this and other transporta­tion projects. We would support that in any event, because the county is growing fast, downtown and the suburbs, and must avoid the road congestion that plagues our neighbors to the south.

In that light, it might also make sense, instead of dead-ending at the VA, for that Tri-Rail line eventually to extend westward, for commuters in growth areas along Northlake Boulevard. That would take place on a more distant time horizon but in transporta­tion, traffic has a way of creeping up on metropolit­an areas faster than road capacity can be built.

There are other considerat­ions to take into account, changes not too far down the line. These include social shifts, like the uncertain impact of remote work on our transporta­tion networks, and technologi­cal advances, like safely spaced self-driving vehicles, which might well reduce the need for iron horses. So, any further study must not be left to train specialist­s alone but assigned to transporta­tion experts and urban planners with a more comprehens­ive perspectiv­e.

The South Florida Regional Transporta­tion Authority, which runs Tri-Rail, proposed the VA link. The link would run partly on existing CSX tracks that pass by the medical center on their way out west, parallelin­g the Beeline Highway. The authority and state would need to buy those tracks, with CSX retaining an easement to continue using them for freight hauling. A Palm Beach Post article by Mike Diamond on June 7 noted that a previous effort to negotiate a purchase, in 1995, ended after the authority balked at the $11 million price. But according to the Palm Beach Transporta­tion Planning Agency (TPA), which supports the link, CSX might be willing to revisit the deal, Diamond wrote.

But even though track already in place for much of the link, it's expensive to build a railroad. A TPA cost analysis estimates constructi­on costs for the link at $38 million, trains and other vehicles, $42 million, and profession­al services, another $10 million. Throw in more than $14 million more for contingenc­ies and pretty soon, as the saying goes, you're talking real money.

The TPA analysis suggests that federal, state and local money could be available for the VA project. The local money could include the county's general fund, the gas tax, or sales taxes.

The project discussion comes at a time when TriRail ridership and revenues have returned to pre-COVID levels, as Diamond reported. Tri-Rail recently added service with a stop at MiamiCentr­al Station, which is already drawing more than 11,000 riders a month. The line's directors also recently approved once-a-day express service to Fort Lauderdale and Miami, to help fill a gap left when Brightline trimmed local commuter seat availabili­ty to leave room for more profitable Orlando jaunts.

We're glad to see Tri-Rail leaders looking proactivel­y toward the future, as mass transit plays an important role in Palm Beach County. But before anyone commits to such a big-ticket project as the VA Medical Center link, let's do our homework.