Funds to keep Tri-Rail operating appear to be in proposed Florida budget

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Tri-Rail’s long road to restoring a full state subsidy to its operating budget appears near a positive end as Florida legislators have included its full $60 million request in the forthcoming state budget, a member of the railroad’s governing agency said Tuesday.

Broward County Commissioner Lamar Fisher, who also is a member of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority board, said at a regular meeting of the County Commission that the item is in the budget that will be voted upon by legislators this Friday.

“The budget does have right now $60 million for rail transit, which we have been fighting for SFRTA with FDOT,” he said. “God willing that will pass. That was great news. We were just hanging by a thread there.”

He credited lobbyist Candice Ericks and Diane Hernandez Del Calvo, the interim excecutive director, for their persistence in delivering Tri-Rail’s message to lawmakers in Tallahassee.

A Tri-Rail spokesman declined comment, saying the railroad’s parent will speak when the final budget “hits the desk” of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The money is critical for regional travelers who use the 37-year-old rail line to ride to South Florida airports, commute to and from schools and jobs, and take round trips to leisure events. Last year, the subsidy was slashed to $15 million, and Tri-Rail’s management said the railroad would run out of money by mid-2027 if the funds were not restored.

As of Wednesday, the state budget of about $115 billion for the state’s 2026-27 fiscal year is in a 72-hour cooling off period, with questions, debate and a final vote by legislators set for this coming Friday.

For more than a decade, the state had paid $42 million annually to help fund the railroad operations, which now includes 19 stops from Mangonia Park north of West Palm Beach, through Broward County and then into Miami-Dade County, where final destinations include Miami International Airport and the MiamiCentral station in downtown Miami shared with Brightline.
Besides Tri-Rail, the CSX freight railroad and Amtrak, the national passenger system, use the state-owned rail corridor that runs mostly west of Interstate 95.

Cuts despite more ridership

The commuter line carried more than 4.5 million passengers last year, a record for its more than three decades of service. Management has been encouraged by increased use of the service by sports fans and other travelers who use the railroad to reach special entertainment and other sporting events in the region.

Each weekday, students use the train to go to and from schools, low- to mid-income hourly workers ride the rails to their jobs and travelers frequent the rail line to head for Miami International and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airports. The Miami airport, railroad officials say, is the line’s No. 1 destination.

Last year, the state transportation officials decided to cut Florida’s contribution to $15 million, declaring the three counties Tri-Rail serves should increase their respective contributions, which now stand at slightly more than $4 million each. The idea landed with a thud among county commissions, all of which said they lack the financial capacity to assume the additional financial burden.
For the coming year, SFRTA was looking to have the state pay a statutory maximum of $62 million to help cover its costs. Both the authority and county officials lobbied Tallahassee hard to restore the money taken away. And the board, in an effort to demonstrate to lawmakers its good faith toward operating the railroad as a more efficient business, moved to trim nominal ride-share services and increase fares, among other measures.

In the interim, reserve funds and expired federal aid have helped give the railroad a clear path to operate through mid-2027.

Lobbying campaign

Former SFTRA Executive Director David Dech, a railroad industry veteran who has since departed for another job in the Midwest, led the persuasion campaign in Tallahassee, pointing out operational improvements Tri-Rail has made under his watch, which started in 2022 and ended earlier this year.

He warned that without the restoration of the lost state dollars, Tri-Rail would have to stop operating in July 2027.

Over the last few months, Dech, his interim successor Hernandez Del Calvo and various local elected officials have said they believe they successfully made their case with the lawmakers.

“When I was in Tallahassee our legislative team received support from both the House and the Senate,” Hernandez Del Calvo told the South Florida Sun Sentinel recently.

But supporters were jarred on May 11 when Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez told an audience in West Palm Beach that while the House would back the fund restoration, he was less certain about the Senate.

As budget deliberations in Tallahassee unfolded, there was no word about the money’s status.

Hernandez Del Calvo said some people counseled patience. But that did not deter her. she said, from picking up the phone every business day.