Page 22 - Layout 1

RV0321.qxp_Layout 1 3/3/21 10:16 PM Page 20

Mayor’s Message

n mid-February, I led a group of South Florida officials on an important trip to
investigate whether it would be feasible to build an underground tunnel for
Icommuter rail service to transit our downtown.
This represents an exciting possibility that could dramatically reshape the future
growth of downtown as well as resolve long-standing traffic problems. And even
more importantly, there is the chance that the project could be done for
substantially less than anyone ever imagined.
We visited the latest venture of business entrepreneur Elon Musk. Musk first built his
reputation around the development of the Tesla electric car and then space
transportation. Now, he is looking at ways to reduce traffic congestion by offering
new low-cost tunneling construction technology.
Among those who joined me on the trip were City Manager Chris Lagerbloom; my
chief of staff, Scott Wyman; Broward County Vice Mayor Michael Udine; the
Dean Trantalis county’s rail expert; Miami Mayor Francis Suarez; Husein Cumber, a high-ranking
Mayor, executive in Florida East Coast Railroad’s business arm; the railroad’s rail
City of Fort Lauderdale infrastructure expert; and its tunneling consultant.
dtrantalis@fortlauderdale.gov
How did this all start?

Well, Brightline is set to restart their commuter service between Miami, Fort
Lauderdale and West Palm Beach later this year. They are expanding the service to
include more stops. At the same time, there has been revived interest in jump-
starting the long-planned Coastal Commuter Link. The Coastal Commuter Link would
include many additional local stops in the tri-county region.
City Hall, 8th Floor
100 N Andrews Ave
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311 The benefits of the commuter service would be significant.
A person could catch a train in Oakland Park and go to the Fort Lauderdale-
Hollywood International Airport for a flight out of town, someone in Pompano
Beach could take the train to the Aventura Mall, or someone living in Boca Raton
could commute to work in Hollywood by train. Of course, Fort Lauderdale would be
at the center of it all with our downtown rail station.
But there are some challenges created by commuter rail.

With dozens of additional trains running along the FEC corridor every day, a
crucial choke point would occur at the New River. Easy river navigation is
important to our marine industry because many boatyards are located west of the
Office Contact railroad’s river crossing, and the marine industry is a critical part of our economy.
Scott Wyman
Chief of Staff The current low-rise train bridge would be used so frequently that many in our
Office of the Mayor marine industry would suffer great financial harm as their businesses would become
swyman@fortlauderdale.gov
954-828-5314 largely inaccessible.
The initial suggestion was to build a new high-rise bridge for the commuter rail
service. Imagine a bridge like the 17th Street Causeway cutting through our
downtown. History has shown that communities suffer when such decisions are
made. Many are now trying to undo that harm.
A bridge would cleave our downtown in two just as it is undergoing a
transformative redevelopment into a modern urban center. In addition, the site of
the proposed joint county-city government campus would sit hard against the
CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE

20 rio vista civic association • www.riovistaonline.com