NEXT STEP FOR TRI-RAIL

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Grant Miller

Fire Tri-Rail Oversight Team!

I want to thank Steve Abrams for resigning as head of the agency that oversees Tri-Rail and construction of Downtown’s Miami Central station. That is the first step in moving forward from bad management that has delayed Tri-Rail in Downtown Miami and its $70 million Miami Central station.

There is still, however, more housekeeping to do at the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA). SFRTA Deputy Executive Director Diane Hernandez Del Calvo and General Counsel Teresa Moore have to go, too.

If Tri-Rail has any chance of getting to Downtown Miami at all, everyone has to go and the person who takes over the SFRTA agency, whether they are temporary or permanent, needs to clean house immediately.

Moore and Hernandez Del Calvo are just as culpable in Tri-Rail’s failure to perform and its failure to notify the SFRTA Board about Miami Central’s bad design and construction issues, with train cars not fitting in the station. Friday’s Board meeting certainly proved that.

It appears that the Miami Central fiasco is not the agency’s only failure. In fact, it may just be the tip of the iceberg.

At Friday’s meeting, the SFRTA Board learned that Tri-Rail’s locomotives are failing and need overhaul. Abrams and team tried to tell the SFRTA Board that they didn’t know the work needed to be done until 2021. However, Ms. Hernandez Del Calvo later explained that the work was budgeted in 2020.  Making it worse for the team, a representative from Tri-Rail’s contractor was called to speak and said he notified the team in 2018.

Later in the meeting, staff requested approval for an emergency repair of pedestrian bridges.  Discussion revealed Tri-Rail has been working on a bid package for the work since a 2019 inspection found problems, but haven’t managed to start the repairs yet.

Another request to the SFRTA Board was to approve a new contract with a Train Safety System provider.  It seems the previous contract expired two years ago, but Hernandez Del Calvo, in charge of Tri-Rail’s finances and Moore allowed work to continue and payments of over $1 million to be made without a contract.

Finally, the conversation of Miami Central came up and it seemed no one knew the whole story.  Train car steps need to be modified.  Either the steps were modified or, the steps were ordered but not installed or, the step modification was done, but needs to be modified again. The discussion went in circles with no clear answer that anyone can trust.  A timeline presented at the meeting shows that steps wouldn’t be ordered until this August. What’s the real story?

Hernandez Del Calvo then reported a consultant is going to look at the platform step problem this week. Why hadn’t they looked at the problem already? Hernandez Del Calvo said they needed to be trained.  Last meeting, depending on who was answering the question, it was learned that the SFRTA leadership knew about the problems in 2018, at the earliest. Why are Hernandez Del Calvo and Moore just sending someone to look at the problem now?

The Board must remove Hernandez Del Calvo and Moore now and install an interim Executive Director or Tri-Rail trains may never get to Downtown Miami.


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