Talk:Tri-Rail/Archive 1

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Archive 1

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I think a new article should be made about the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Arigont (talk • contribs) 14:00, August 3, 2006.

Contradiction

The "Fleet" section is very confused right now, with at least two sets of contradictions.

The second paragraph states The new purpose-built commuter coaches are larger than the Bombardier BiLevel Coaches they are designed to eventually replace in practically every respect, holding up to 188 passengers, with room for bicycles and luggage, while the last paragraph states the prototype consist suffers from a lack of bicycle and luggage storage that have been a source of irritation and complaints from daily and airport commuters. Both of these statements cannot be true; which is correct?

The third paragraph states Sources at Tri-Rail have indicated that temporary, steeper-than-normal grades during construction on the New River Bridge require more power and torque than the DMU's powerplants can currently produce and still operate within safety limits. Sources also indicate that the locomotive will be dropped from the DMU consist once the New River Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale is complete in early 2007, while the last paragraph states Sources close to the project also indicate that the prototype DMU is irreparably underpowered and cannot operate within current safety margins without a "helper" locomotive, thus defeating the purpose altogether of a self-propelled coach. These early problems with the DMU demonstrator prototype cast the future acquisition of more DMU rolling stock by Tri-Rail in some doubt. Which is correct?

Additionally, the "Overview" section states that the new New River Bridge is complete, while the "Fleet" section discusses problems relating to the construction of the bridge. Is the bridge complete? If so, the "Fleet" section needs a substantial rewrite.

Horologium talk - contrib 17:38, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I've been tending to the Fleet section, and must admit I've been a bit lax recently. Hopefully I've addressed the contradiction.

The New River Bridge was finally completed in April of 2007. Around the same time a second DMU was appeared to replace the prototype DMU consist, replacing the EMD GP49-3 "helper" and adding an additional passenger capacity of roughly 180 passengers to the consist.

Piusg 03:44, 14 June 2007 (UTC)gpius

It's much better, but there is still a contradiction between the second and fourth paragraph of the Fleet section, discussing the luggage and bicycle storage capacity. Does the new rolling stock have storage capacity or not? Is it the same as before, greater capacity, or less? That was the primary reason for the tag, although the other contradiction (which you have fixed) was something I noted when I put the tag up last month. Horologium t-c 04:06, 14 June 2007 (UTC)Never mind, you just fixed that as well. Nice job. Horologium t-c 04:10, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Serious doubts about station opening dates

I've been finding out that SFRTA uses a lot of former Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line stations, which makes me think the opening dates listed on this site aren't correct. ---- DanTD 13:45, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Among those I have the greatest doubts about are Hollywood (Tri-Rail station), and some of the images on TrainWeb's page convince me that it was not opened in January 1989(http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/hollywood.htm). I think I'm going to start searching though the List of Registered Historic Places in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties for former stations with the same addresses. ---- DanTD 14:02, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

You're right about the Hollywood station...

It opened as a Tri-Rail station in 1989. But it's been a railway station for a number of decades, and, like the Miami, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, and West Palm Beach stations, serves as an Amtrak whistle-stop and did so long before Tri-Rail came along.

(Actually, when they built the new Delray Beach station they abandoned the old station in place. I still ride past it every day. It's a decaying ruin now.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Piusg (talk • contribs) 20:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I thought so. It looks too old to be a Tri-Rail station. Even with retro-Spanish Mission features, you can still tell the difference between a modern station, and a used one. Apparently, the website Dynamic Depot Maps indicates that this was a Seaboard Air Line station built in 1926. ----DanTD (talk) 17:04, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
Okay, now I'm convinced Fort Lauderdale (Tri-Rail station) is in the same boat as Hollywood, Deerfield Beach, and West Palm Beach. ----DanTD (talk) 18:03, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Apparently they don't have bicycles in Colorado...

The bicycle spots on the Colorado Railcar rolling stock are about a foot too short for most 26" bikes. It's a total pain to ride the coach with so little room for one's bike. The Bombardier cars are so much nicer when it comes to managing bikes, and even though they're not quite as comfortable, I still prefer them.

Up until about mid-2007, one needed a bicycle pass from Tri-Rail--available by mail and from a little kiosk at the Pompano Beach station. It was a vinyl sticker with the Tri-Rail logo and a serial number. If you didn't have the sticker on your bike, you were subject to being heaved off the train at the next stop by the Wackenhut security. But they don't give out stickers anymore, and they don't care how many bikes crowd onto the trains. I don't know why. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Piusg (talk • contribs) 20:20, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Trirail (not) being on schedule -section missing

I think it would be necessary to include section about the failing schedule of this rail service. It's a legend that you can get from West palm to Miami faster by train, but only in paper. My recent visits to the stations has shown that from 10 visits the train has been late 6 times and cancelled twice! This is unacceptable ratio for a service moving 'on schedule' and should be mentioned here to avoid people getting late from their flights etc... If someone could write the article, I could help to reference it with field study sampling I quess. BW —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.120.5 (talk) 13:00, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

It's too bad we don't accept real sources here. Daniel Christensen (talk) 16:17, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Possible Shutdown

Include a section on how the system is threatened with a shutdown in 2011 or 2012? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.64.18.204 (talk) 03:37, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Merge discussion

I propose that the article for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority be merged into this article, as SFRTA exists go fund and oversee the operations of Tri-Rail, and operates no other service. The Miami Metrorail and Metromover are operated by Miami-Dade Transit, and buses are run by the three member county agencies. It seems to me to be analogous to the Penninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, the operator of Caltrain, which was similarly merged; I just don't think the SFRTA has any real independent notability. oknazevad (talk) 14:39, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Comment: If SFRTA also didn't involve the cooperation with Broward County Transit, Miami-Dade Transit, and Palm Tran, I might agree with you. ----DanTD (talk) 02:27, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
Comment: SFRTA does have other roles, however unclear they make them. Their Mission, Goals, and Objectives slides do not mention the words "Tri-Rail" (except as a logo) or "train" anywhere. The legislation which created SFRTA from a previous agency also removed out a lot of train-specific language.
Current news/rumors in the newspapers is that the state of Florida is looking to have a private company take over Tri-Rail, but keep SFRTA around for other things. Cerlyn (talk) 17:24, 27 August 2011 (UTC)
This should answer your questions:

Daniel Christensen (talk) 03:26, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

Also, a grant being considered to run shuttle buses from Culmer Metrorail station to the new Marlins ballpark would be done through the SFRTA, so they're more than Tri-Rail. Daniel Christensen (talk) 12:26, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Speed

Approximately 80? I don't think so. The moving average is in the 40's, 50 it does not even break between most stops. The fastest I've clocked it at is 75, very briefly, between Hollywood and Golden Glades. It maintains 70+ for less than a minute in that segment. It's as fast as any segment in the line. I believe the maximum legal speed on that CSX line is 79 MPH, so "approximately 80" is a bit misleading I would say. Daniel Christensen (talk) 22:55, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

  • Even if it is not the average, "Up to 79 MPH" is accurate per Speed limits in the United States (rail) as the limit for 'trains without "an automatic cab signal, automatic train stop or automatic train control system"'. Another segment where this may be reached is in-between the Cypress Creek and Fort Lauderdale stations, where a conductor once announced this speed on a train I was on while traffic on the adjacent highway was stopped.

    It's worth noting that similar logic may have helped lead to the Ohio high-speed rail projects being terminated, as those against it called it a "39 MPH High-Speed Rail project" [1]. We could try and derive the average Tri-Rail speed from time tables and distance if desired, but I do not know how much padding there is, and if the average speed is representative of most journeys as a whole. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cerlyn (talk • contribs) 02:04, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
Yes, I am the one who changed it to that. And I used a GPS app, it does go 80, which sadly is as fast as intercity Amtrak. Daniel Christensen (talk) 03:28, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
Is there a way to get an accurate number without violating WP:NOR? Now the article states 82 MPH. Cerlyn (talk) 04:15, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
Yes, that was my GPS, and it hits exactly 82 between many stops, but not just 81, and never 83, so it is accurate. There is a youtube video of an early 90s broadcast that says it hits 80. The national speed limit of 79 has +-5% error so that's +-3.95 m.p.h. Daniel Christensen (talk) 08:16, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
It's worth noting that your GPS has an inaccuracy factor as well. Cerlyn (talk) 19:05, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Opening date?

This archived article excerpt is from January 10, 1989, and is about a Tri-Rail rider: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PBPB&p_theme=pbpb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF82A71861CBA1&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

DMUs

Tri-Rail no longer uses the DMUs because they don't run on biodiesel. They had to pick one of two goverment programs, the DMU project or all biodiesel certification. Daniel Christensen (talk) 13:11, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

You got a source for that? A real source, not rumor-mongering on a discussion board. oknazevad (talk) 19:33, 20 November 2011 (UTC)
Guy at the station. The fact that they're sitting in the yard. Daniel Christensen (talk) 10:20, 21 November 2011 (UTC)
Turns out I am wrong, they do still use them, but rarely. Daniel Christensen (talk) 15:26, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

↓ >

References

A schedule table could also be added. Daniel Christensen (talk) 01:17, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

No, it can't. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a train schedule. I should have removed it a year ago, but had taken this page off my watch list accidentally. Please do not re-add it. oknazevad (talk) 20:55, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

sfecc

http://sfeccstudy.com/index.html

http://sfeccstudy.com/fact-sheet-fallsummer-2011.html

Update and cleanup

I swear I added to some article here about the increase in weekend service to one hour headways instead of two, which made a big difference. B137 (talk) 01:45, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

This page has fallen out of date and repair. And no more surprisingly fast talk page responses, it seems. Pompano Beach station, the downtown spur, a source and mention of the weekend service increase, and a not about the addition of a person being struck and killed recently: now that "accidents and incidents" has been added, I think the now chronological section is misleading; this is not the first time by far that people have been struck and killed, as well as cars, it's just that now apparently it's being monitored and added here. It wasn't notable for the first 10 years, maybe it isn't now as well. B137 (talk) 16:40, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Rolling stock

Hello! The rolling stock section needs a total overhaul: please help! Very few of the statements there have sources. I'm going to have to delete nearly all of it if editors can't find sources. I'll try to look for some myself. –Daybeers (talk) 22:51, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

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