30 Years of Development, Millions Wasted: Amtrak Abandons Miami Airport Station Without Service – View from the Wing

An Amtrak station was built at the Miami airport, and after three decades of development the government rail corporation has decided not to use it. It was completed eight years ago, and they’re just walking away.

In 1997, Amtrak and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) signed an agreement to include Amtrak service in the [Miami Intermodal Center] project, which influenced the MIC’s development. Despite these intentions, the Amtrak station has remained unused since its completion in 2016.

Negotiations over the lease and operational details persisted for years, with updates suggesting progress as recently as mid-2024. However, Amtrak ultimately determined that extending its Silver Meteor and Silver Star services from their current terminus in Hialeah to MIA would be financially prohibitive.

Miami Intermodal Center, credit: Phillip Pessar via Wikimedia Commons

This comes after Florid “reconstructing a local road, creating a bypass, and adding a signalized intersection, to accommodate Amtrak’s service.” So no Amtrak to the Miami airport. And, ok, sunk costs and all but… after 28 years of work?

The Empire State Building took one year and 45 days from construction state to opening, beginning March 17, 1930, and having its official open May 1, 1931. We used to build things in this country. In many parts of the world, they still do. We do spend money, though, like the new $8.8 billion redevelopment plan for Union Station in Washington, D.C.expected to be complete after 2040 and that’ll likely be pushed back.

And they… revised the plan to reduce parking because opponents felt they had too much, even though exactly what you want is for people to be able to show up at the station and take the train instead of drive.

At D.C.’s Union Station last week, Amtrak left behind 100 passengers on the last train the day after Christmas because employees couldn’t be bothered.

Before the pandemic, former Delta CEO Richard Anderson was brought in to try to fix the mess at Amtrak. But Amtrak doesn’t want to be fixed, and he got bounced for his efforts. The 2022 federal infrastructure bill committed an additional $66 billion to Amtrak, but the government train corporation’s fundamental problems aren’t fixable just with money.

Nearly 30 years ago Jay Leno responded to an Amtrak ad with a couple cozying up next to each other on a train, saying that he always knew near-death experiences brought people together. At the time Amtrak was planning to let go of 600 managers, but Leno said they weren’t actually going to be fired, Amtrak was just going to put them on a train…