""It was July," he recalled. "It was very warm in the [rail] car. There was a pungent odor in the car. You couldn't see out the windows. The windows were all fogged up. There was a fellow in a hospital gown sitting on the end of the platform.""
""Over the last three years we've changed 850 windows. We've replaced air conditioning - sometimes more than once on the cars," he said. "We have cleaners at both ends. Top to bottom on the railroad we've cleaned the garbage out and worked with the counties on relocating homeless camps. Today the cars ride better. They're not perfect. They're old. We re-wrapped them, we changed the windows, we changed the air conditioners, we replaced the bathrooms in the cab cars.""
""I'm just exceptionally proud of the efforts between our team and our contractors to really turn this railroad and make it into where I think I can put this railroad up against any railroad in the country," he said. "It's a good-looking railroad. It's clean. Stations are cleaner, we've increased security, we've increased fare collections.""
In 2022 Tri-Rail trains and stations showed significant neglect: warm cars, pungent odors, fogged windows, trash-lined corridors and homeless camps. The system served 18 stations across Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties and shared a corridor with Amtrak and CSX. Over three years crews replaced hundreds of windows, installed new air conditioning units, re-wrapped aging cars and updated cab-car bathrooms. Cleaning crews and county partners removed garbage and addressed homeless encampments. Security and fare-collection efforts increased. Service was extended to downtown Miami, and overall ride quality and station cleanliness improved, though equipment remains aged.
Read at Sun Sentinel
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