Amtrak’s voiding of a 27-year deal to link to other transit modes at Miami International Airport is triggering political maneuvers to upend the federally controlled railway’s blown call. Florida in 2016 tailor-made a never-used station at the Miami Intermodal Center for Amtrak and then reworked it after the railway griped. But last week, Miami Today broke news of derailment of the railway’s agreement that set off a transportation firefight. First, Miami-Dade County’s Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust is drafting a resolution asking the incoming Trump administration to reconsider a pullout that left local transportation in the lurch. That’s pivotal, because Amtrak is a federally chartered corporation, operated as a for-profit company but with the US government owning all preferred stock as controlling shareholder. The US president appoints board members, the Senate confirms them. Both the company’s CEO and the presidentially appointed secretary of transportation are Amtrak board members. That makes incoming President Trump Amtrak’s engineer-in-chief, a new man taking the throttle after the presidential inauguration and a force to be reckoned with in reversing Amtrak’s no-show decision under the Biden administration.   Second, the transportation trust is appealing to area congressmen. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart has chaired the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Rep. Carlos Gimenez was Miami-Dade’s mayor when Amtrak’s airport use was supposedly cemented by a completed station that still awaits Amtrak ghost trains. The role of these congressmen is pivotal: the federal government appropriates Amtrak’s capital funds.  Further, those whom Amtrak snubbed can choke off the system’s state and local subsidies. The transportation trust, says Executive Director Javier Betancourt, plans to seek county support in making Amtrak live up to its agreements. Although Amtrak first agreed in 1997 to make the intermodal center its southernmost station and since has been involved in more accords that were being tweaked, the railway’s Nov. 19 letter to the state that pulled the plug on station use stated “we jointly evaluated use of the MIC [Miami Intermodal Center] to support Amtrak’s intercity passenger rail network,” phrased as though no agreement already existed. Although the image of Amtrak rolling up to Miami International Airport is alluring, Mr. Betancourt points out that the vital gap is Amtrak’s national link to regional travel at the multi-modal hub. Amtrak passenger loads could have fed – and been fed by – the Tri-Rail regional system whose station is directly beside Amtrak’s unused site. Other links there include Greyhound buses, county buses, Metrorail, and a vast rental car hub, not to mention 96 airlines that serve the airport. Amtrak as a missing component is costing all involved synergy. “I think the benefit of going to the airport wasn’t actually the potential to transfer between train and plane, but the synergy with other related services, i.e., access to long-term parking, transfer to commuter rail, Greyhound, car rental companies, airport shuttles and nearby hotels, which are all just as useful to train passengers as airline passengers, especially when dealing with delays and cancellations,” wrote one user on reading of Amtrak’s pullout. Mr. Betancourt noted that Amtrak’s error in keeping Hialeah as its southernmost stop means that rail passengers will have none of those synergistic opportunities. “I disagree with those saying this is ‘no big deal’ or service to the intermodal station ‘isn’t helpful,’” a rail rider reacted. “I spent three days in Miami this year, being entirely transit dependent. Everything was made more complicated by the lack of Amtrak service to the intermodal facility. To go from Amtrak to Brightline, I had to walk through a scuzzy area with interrupted sidewalks for the half mile from the Tri-Rail station. To get from my airport hotel to Amtrak Miami, I had to take a shuttle to the airport, take the peoplemover to the intermodal hub, wait for the next Tri-Rail train to the Metro transfer station, then make the walk again. Getting Amtrak into the intermodal hub would hugely decomplicate access to pretty much everything else in Miami.” When Amtrak broke its word, it left a brand-new station with nobody to use it. A candidate would be Brightline, which didn’t exist when the station was built in 2016. But if Brightline tries to use the station, who controls use? The Florida Department of Transportation partnered with the county to build it for Amtrak, but Miami International Airport is involved in the Miami Intermodal Center’s operation. Who decides, and how? The best possible solution would be for Amtrak to awaken to the value of serving the airport area’s connecting links rather than dumping passengers in Hialeah with no connectivity. It might cost less to bypass Miami, but at what cost to the mission of national rail service?  A train route branded with Miami’s name, after all, is a far larger asset to Amtrak than promising national trips straight to Hialeah. If Amtrak doesn’t change its mind willingly, an incoming engineer-in-chief who appoints Amtrak’s board coupled with Congress and its Amtrak funding should get the rail line on the right track to Miami. Related Posts:Amtrak derails decades of deals to serve Miami…More hurdles in long drive to get Amtrak to the airportAmtrak to run Chicago-Miami route for first time since 1979Unused Miami International Airport hub for Amtrak…Amtrak trains may soon reach Miami International AirportThe post Federal action needed on Amtrak derailment of Miami hub appeared first on Miami Today.