Monday, February 3, 2020

Virgin Trains Brightline Bait & Switch

Something that concerned me greatly when Miami-Dade County decided to fund the purchase and construction of a train station for the private venture, Virgin Trains LLC. is that this relatively modest investment would be used by public officials to abrogate their responsibilities to the community under the SMART plan.

It's one thing for a politician to reject the ideals of the SMART plan, and to work towards their own vision, but it's quite another to claim this likewise modest project as fulfillment of the SMART plans Northeast corridor.


Lead agencies are FDOT and TPO

I want to make it clear, as some of these administrators move forward with their careers, that the Virgin Trains station near Aventura is not fulfillment of the SMART plan, and I have no idea why even journalists are now starting to make that claim.

It's inevitable, then, that Alice Bravo and Carlos Gimenez will start making the same claim. That they have implement the Northeast corridor of the SMART plan, however I simply ask that you look at this document which clearly indicates that the NE corridor is supposed to be a series of stations, not one in downtown and one by county line.




Virgin Trains Brightline Bait & Switch

Something that concerned me greatly when Miami-Dade County decided to fund the purchase and construction of a train station for the private ...