CSX just made an 11 mile east-west Tri-Rail or Metrorail line along its Miami International Airport-bordering rail tracks significantly more expensive than the bargain basement $102 million estimated construction cost of the project, reports the Miami Herald. They don't want to rent or provide usage of the tracks to anybody. They want to sell them to the State of Florida for fair market value and still be allowed exclusive and perpetual freight usage of the tracks, with Florida paying the entire maintenance bill.
This is exactly how Tri-Rail and Sunrail were created, on former CSX trackage, so CSX obviously considers it reasonable, with one crucial difference: They want Florida to buy an additional 24 miles of track that extends down to Homestead. The Herald estimates the cost of the entire 35 miles to be $245 million, based on the cost of SunRail, but that was in Orlando where land is cheaper, so that might be a rather modest estimate. Perhaps this additional trackage could be used for an extension of Tri-Rail too?
· A costly piece for Miami-Dade's east west route [Miami Herald]
· CSX coverage [Curbed Miami]
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