MiamiCentral

MiamiCentral
Brightline station

Construction of MiamiCentral
Location NW 1st Avenue Miami, Florida United States
Coordinates 25°46′39″N 80°11′45″W / 25.77753°N 80.19578°W / 25.77753; -80.19578Coordinates: 25°46′39″N 80°11′45″W / 25.77753°N 80.19578°W / 25.77753; -80.19578
Owned by Florida East Coast Industries (FECI)
Line(s)

All Aboard Florida:

  Brightline
(2017)
Platforms

[1]

Tracks
  • 5 Total
  • 3 (FEC - est. 2017)
  • 2 (Tri-Rail - est. 2017)
Construction
Structure type Train Station, Condo, Retail, Office, Hotel
Parking Yes
Disabled access Yes
Architect Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (2017)
Architectural style Modernism (2017)
History
Opened Late 1890s (Original FEC Station)
Closed January 23, 1963 (Original FEC Station)
Rebuilt Early 2017 (Planned)
Services
Preceding station   Florida East Coast Railway   Following station
  Future services  
toward Orlando
Brightline
(2017)		Terminus
  Former services  
Little River
toward Jacksonville
FEC Mainline
(Closed 1960s)		Terminus
Preceding station   SFRTA   Following station
  Future services  
Midtown/Design District
Red Line
Coastal Link (Proposed)
Terminus

MiamiCentral station is a nine acres complex under construction that will included a Brightline train station, a proposed Tri-Rail train station, and connections to the adjacent Government Center station serving both the Metrorail and Metromover. The complex will be located just east of Miami-Dade County Hall and will also include 3 million square feet of mixed-use development with residential, office and commercial, and a retail concourse. The station complex will connect Brightline with the Metrorail, and Metromover, Metrobus and City of Miami trolley.[2] The new Brightline station will officially connect the following transit modes: 2 Metrotrail stations, 2 Metromover stations, Metrobus, and the future Tri-Rail station. This will increase connections to activities and tourist destinations, including the Performing Arts Center, Bayside Marketplace and Bayfront Park. MiamiCentral is designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in association with Zyscovich Architects.[3]

History

Old FEC Stations: 1890-1963

View toward the southeast of the city center, with passenger trains and the Dade County Courthouse foreground, c. 1930s

MiamiCentral was originally a railroad station developed in the late 1890s as the southern terminus of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) from 1896 through 1905, when construction began extending the line to Key West (see Overseas Railroad). The FEC built a modest wooden-constructed downtown passenger terminal in 1912, near the future Miami-Dade County Courthouse at 200 Northwest First Avenue.[4] The Miami-Dade County Courthouse was completed in 1928. One year before its completion, in 1927, Seaboard Air Line Railroad intercity passenger rail started service at the location, and, along with the FEC, continued service through January 23, 1963, when both of the rail unions went on strike.[5][6]

At the insistence of the City of Miami, which had long fought to get rid of the tracks in the downtown section just north of the county courthouse, the downtown passenger terminal was demolished by November 1963.[7] Although a new station was planned at the Buena Vista yard near North Miami Avenue and 36th Street (US 27),[6] it was never built. The site of the old station was left as parking lots until construction of MiamiCentral began in 2014.

When FEC ended their passenger service, this left Seaboard Coast Line (Later Amtrak) as the sole intercity rail in Miami. They operated out of the decaying Allapattah terminal at NW 7th Avenue until in 1978 Amtrak moved to its current location near Hialeah.[8]

New Station

In March 2012, All Aboard Florida, a subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries who also owns the Florida East Coast Railway, announced plans to connect Miami and Orlando, Florida with Higher-speed passenger rail service. [9] In May 2014 All Aboard Florida unveiled their plans for the 9 acre site, construction anticipated in late 2014. It will include two tracks on either side of an island platform, 50 ft above street level, 3 million square feet of transit-oriented development, with Retail shops at street level and hotel rooms, housing and office space would occupy number towers above the station.[10][11] By August 2014 the parking lots that have occupied the site for decades were closed and the site was being prepared for construction.[12]

See also

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.