A county measure to be discussed this week would order Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to report in 90 days on the feasibility of alternate modes of transportation, including passenger rail, instead of an earlier bus solution for the East-West Corridor of the long-awaited Smart transportation effort. The vote would direct the mayor to “take all necessary actions in order to provide the Transportation Planning Organization with all the required information” to consider the switch from buses, including “passenger rail on existing or future railroad corridors.” The resolution by county commission Vice Chairman Anthony Rodriguez would require a report within 90 days. The county’s transportation department seems to be already at work on the report that Mr. Rodriguez seeks. The Transportation Planning Organization in January told the county to shelve a rapid transit buses plan for the 13.5-mile corridor along SR 836 and reevaluate the transit mode, and the county has an $8.1 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration to do the analysis, transportation department Assistant Director Josiel Ferrer-Diaz told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last month. The county is now coordinating the scope of that study with the Florida Department of Transportation, Mr. Ferrer-Diaz said, and is setting the scope and choosing a consultant and they “plan on executive very soon and commencing…. There’s no defined schedule for the report.” If the commission’s Transportation, Mobility and Planning Committee and then the full commission pass Mr. Rodriguez’s resolution, that would seem to set the clock ticking on a defined 90-day study target. The long-standing plan for bus rapid transit from downtown Miami to West Dade was shelved in January as planners decided to try two other paths to reach Florida International University. One was rail, the other an elevated Metromover along Flagler Street. A plan agreed upon in June was to try both paths and forget the aim of bus rapid transit down the center of SR 836. The existing rail line within the corridor belongs to CSX, a freight carrier that the county has been trying to convince to share its rails with a commuter line whose operator is still unknown. Mr. Rodriguez’s resolution says those east-west tracks “could potentially be utilized to operate passenger rail service in addition to any existing freight operations.” The resolution, however, also cites a look at a new rail line for commuting. The elevated Metromover option surfaced as an alternative to waiting for CSX to agree to commuter rail on its tracks. County Commissioner Eileen Higgins underlined the need in January. “We all agree that Flagler is our highest ridership corridor going out to FIU, which I think has 100,000 people working there on any given day, and we do not have a way to get people out,” she said. “We have a possible solution with CSX, but they control the tracks.” Commissioner Rodriguez said in January that studying the CSX solution was already county commission policy even if a Metromover study runs simultaneously. Related Posts:East-West rapid transit pivots to two new routesFYI Miami: June 6, 2024Tri-Rail offered to lead new Miami-Dade rail plansPassenger rail service on track for CSX in South DadeMore CSX freight trains seen as route to add…The post New passenger rail in play for East-West Smart Plan corridor appeared first on Miami Today.