4 January 18-24, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ MIAMI THE GOLDEN SPIKE? TRI-RAIL FINALLY EXPANDS TRAIN SERVICE TO DOWNTOWN. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN A fter nearly seven years of de- lays, Tri-Rail kicked off its ser- vice to downtown Miami in an expansion that connects rid- ers from as far north as Palm Beach County to the heart of the Magic City. The new service launched on January 13 as a transfer at Hialeah’s Metrorail Transfer Sta- tion, where riders take a shuttle train to the MiamiCentral station downtown. The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), which oversees Tri-Rail, announced the expansion is part of a two-week “soft launch” with six trains going to and from MiamiCentral before service eventually ramps up to the full schedule of 26 weekday trains, 13 trains in and out of the downtown station. “The day has finally arrived when the pub- lic can plan their direct trips in and out of downtown Miami onboard Tri-Rail trains,” said Raquel Regalado, SFRTA governing board member and Miami-Dade County commissioner. The Tri-Rail rollout offers a new Miami railway option that transit advocates say was sorely needed. Until now, commuters coming from Palm Beach and Broward counties and northern- most Miami-Dade communities had no di- rect, low-cost rail line to downtown. Many had to choose between I-95 gridlock or coughing up big bucks to ride the Brightline to get to work. “This is a great cost-effective option for Miami-Dade residents and people coming into Miami,” Tala Habash, spokesperson for local nonprofit Transit Alliance, tells New Times.”The Brightline is fancy. It’s shiny and a great experience, but it’s also great to have an option for the everyday person who is rely- ing on trains and this type of transit for their day-to-day commute.” The nine-mile extension, known as the Tri-Rail Downtown Miami Link, was ex- pected to begin operating in 2017 out of the existing Brightline depot. But the highly-an- ticipated expansion, a $70 million, taxpayer- funded project, was delayed after issues were discovered involving the Brightline infra- structure, including a platform being too nar- row for Tri-Rail trains to safely pass through, an elevated ramp that was too weak to handle the trains, and exposed rebar. An engineer also said cracks had formed on the platform. The problems, which engineers identified in April 2021, were disclosed to the public and the Tri-Rail board seven months later in December, the Miami Herald reported. The construction issues and delays culminated in the resignation of SFRTA executive director Steven Abrams after the board members said they had been left in the dark about the con- struction and were concerned by the lack of urgency to address the problems. “We have worked through many chal- lenges, which only makes the accomplish- ment of this major service enhancement for the public that much sweeter,” Regalado said this week. “The SFRTA governing board was ready to elevate the sense of urgency to get this project completed this past year that ulti- mately helped get it to the finish line.” Mark Merwitzer, policy manager for Tran- sit Alliance, calls the new service “a huge im- provement” to the area’s transportation system. “It also represents a massive turnaround for SFRTA from where it was a couple of years ago,” he says. “We’re hoping this new service is going to be just the beginning for Tri-Rail to serve as a critical commuter rail.” He tells New Times he is hoping Tri-Rail will expand to other parts of Miami-Dade, in- cluding Wynwood. “Tri-Rail has been neglected for a very long time,” Merwitzer adds. “The trains, the stations, and the service have not been in the best shape until recently. It’s slowly turning around, and this new service to downtown is a brand opportunity for Tri- Rail. We’re hoping going forward that Tri- Rail can present as a viable alternative to people who have to endure the I-95 traffic on a daily basis.” Whereas Brightline recently banned bicy- cles from its trains, Tri-Rail allows them on- board and has some train cars with open cabins for bicycles in addition to a secure bi- cycle-locker program at stations. SFRTA announced last month that Tri- Rail averaged more than 300,000 riders per month between January and November 2023, an 18 percent jump from the year prior. | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS Tri-Rail, which has 18 stations across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, has expanded to downtown Miami. South Florida Regional Transportation Authority photo ▼ MIAMI UNWANTED GUESTS MIAMI CREEPS ONTO THE LIST OF MOST COCKROACH-INFESTED CITIES. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN H ere in the Magic City, residents have to deal with astronomical rental prices, constant traffic gridlock, and frequent flooding. As if that weren’t bad enough, we’re con- demned to share our fair city with an untold number of sewer-dwelling, six-legged creepy crawlers. According to a new survey by Pest Gnome, Miami is the sixth-most roach-infested city in the nation — a ranking that may come as no surprise to longtime denizens familiar with finding cock- roaches of uncanny size scurrying across their kitchens in the middle of the night. The exterminator-referral company com- piled the list of “The 25 Roachiest Cities in America” based on U.S. Census survey results, Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the preva- lence of local pest control workers, and climate info from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. Houston sits atop the list, with 37 percent of homes showing signs of roaches over the last year. San Antonio comes in second and Tampa third. Pest Gnome notes that roaches thrive in warm, humid environments, which explains their abundance in the Magic City. Some of the most common indoor species — which on any given night, Miamians might find lurking in cabinets or eyeing them from their bedroom floor — are the smokey brown cockroach, Oriental cockroach, brown-banded cockroach, German cockroach, and the chunkiest of them all: the American cockroach, which is typically around an inch- and-a-half long. Insect expert William Kern, an entomology professor at the University of Florida, noted that the roaches that favor living inside human homes represent a small fraction of cockroach species worldwide. “The four main pest cockroaches in the U.S. are the same four species found in every major city in the world. In nature, cockroaches are scavengers that clean the environ- ment of rotting fruit, fungi, decomposing plant matter,” Kern told Pest Gnome. Of course, the census data used for the “roachiest” cities list does not account for the critters that people can’t see, living in the crevices and walls of their homes or under the streets in city sewer infrastructure, where roaches colonize and feed on human excrement. Though Florida’s native roach species gener- ate enough gagging and late-night screams to go around, New Times has documented a few new arrivals to the Sunshine State. In 2015, an environmental scientist discov- ered a pale-bordered field cockroach, native to Central America and the Caribbean, crawling in his office in Central Florida. He told New Times the invasive roach species could wind up in South Florida. A year later, a NOAA researcher was walking on Virginia Key when he noticed a roach that was a much larger version of the pal- metto bug at more than four centimeters long. He eventually discovered it was an invasive West Indian Leaf cockroach that was reproducing on Virginia Key. [email protected] FLORIDA’S NATIVE ROACH SPECIES GENERATE ENOUGH GAGGING AND LATE-NIGHT SCREAMS TO GO AROUND.
