Delray Beach’s eight highest-risk FEC railroad crossings were chosen
to receive $1.3 million in safety improvements — creating ‘quiet zones.’
Bruce Borich/The Coastal Star
By Tim Pallesen
Delray Beach will receive federal money to create “quiet zones” by eliminating train horns on the east side of the city.
Freight trains that now rumble through downtown might be moved west and Tri-Rail commuter trains might become more convenient for passengers on the eastern Florida East Coast Railway tracks.
The future of South Florida railroads became clearer when All Aboard Florida officials and regional transportation planners spoke before city commissioners on May 5 to address city concerns.
The city can’t stop All Aboard Florida, the proposed new passenger service to link Miami to Orlando with 32 trains a day on the FEC tracks. But commissioners still passed a resolution that says the city will oppose All Aboard Florida unless the private company pays for extra crossing gates to allow the quiet zones.
The federal government already has committed to paying $930,000 for the motorist safety improvements and another $325,000 for pedestrian improvements at FEC crossings in the city, county Metropolitan Planning Organization director Nick Uhren told commissioners.
Some Delray Beach residents have argued that the new Miami-to-Orlando service with stops only in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach has no local benefit.
“Is there a need? Our citizens overwhelmingly don’t see a need,” City Commissioner Mitch Katz told All Aboard Florida officials.
But the question of how Delray Beach would benefit might have been answered when Uhren joined with FEC Industries vice president Jose Gonzalez and South Florida Regional Transportation Authority executive director Jack Stephens to explain how All Aboard Florida has made other changes in commuter and freight trains possible.
“They’ve created the opportunity for transformational change that didn’t exist before,” Stephens said.
South Florida has two north-south rail lines — the FEC tracks on the east, which carry most of the freight trains, and the western CSX tracks along I-95, carrying Tri-Rail and Amtrak.
The three speakers explained how federal money is already being spent to connect the two rail lines so many of the freight trains that block traffic in downtown Delray can be moved west and Tri-Rail trains can shift to the downtown tracks, where a depot would be more convenient to commuters.
Mayor Cary Glickstein, a board member on the county planning agency, had invited Stephens and Uhren to explain the larger plans to worried Delray Beach residents. “We have to think differently about transportation,” Glickstein said. “We need to get cars off roads and trucks off I-95. Rail is going to be the resolution.”
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