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Unlike Brightline, Tri-Rail is a publicly funded commuter rail system. As taxpayers we pay for Tri-Rail’s service and equipment including the tracks, trains and stations. As a public transit system, it is designed to be a low-cost alternative to commuting by car and helps ease traffic congestion on our over-crowded highways.
As a public service, it is the responsibility of a Board of Directors and their appointed Executive Director to manage the system in the best interests of the public and to protect the public’s investment. Whether we are riders or not, we should all want the system to be effective and efficient.
As discussed in past Tri-Rail Board meetings, Tri-Rail’s passenger cars are up to 33 years old and, although newer, some of Tri-Rail’s locomotives are over 200% past their operating period recommended before overhaul.
During Steven Abrams tenure at Tri-Rail’s helm, Abrams’ appears to have only recommended costly piecemeal repairs when equipment failed instead of following standard industry overhaul practices. Abrams’ method of addressing the taxpayer funded track and fleet could be compared to driving your car for 100,000 miles without changing the oil and keeping your fingers crossed hoping the engine won’t fail. As this method doesn’t make sense for your personal vehicle, it also is clearly not an effective or cost-efficient way to protect the taxpayer’s multi-million dollar assets.
Last year, Tri-Rail’s Board ousted Steven Abrams and hired David Dech. Having a qualified leader at the helm, Tri-Rail finally seems to be moving in the right direction.
At his first Board meeting, Executive Director Dech recommended, and the Board approved comprehensive overhaul programs to begin to address the aging fleet’s failing reliability.
In his second Board meeting, Mr. Dech addressed more of Abrams’ neglect of taxpayer assets by recommending long delayed track maintenance, called rail grinding, and the repair of major damage at a train station that had been ignored since 2017.
Dech also took the right action by requiring all staff of this public service agency to finally return to their offices if they wanted to continue to receive a paycheck. Abrams had let staff, “work” from home, to manage the public train service for over two years.
Due to Abrams’ neglect, Tri-Rail has seen an increase in train delays due to equipment failure in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, years of neglect cannot be corrected overnight or even in several months. Mr. Dech will have to manage the system as best as possible as these programs proceed.
What other taxpayer assets were neglected during Abrams’ time as Executive Director and on the Board of Tri-Rail have yet to be discussed publicly. We can only assume if Abrams managed everything as poorly as he managed the Miami Central project, Mr. Dech, Tri-Rail and the riders will have to face more pain before our public train system can be turned around.
For the first time in Tri-Rail’s history, their next Board meeting will be held in Miami-Dade county. The meeting will be at 9:30AM on Friday, January 27th at the Commission Chambers of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, located at 111 NW 1st Street, Miami, FL 33128. Anyone interested in the future of South Florida’s public transportation is welcome to attend.
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