Back in the 1970s, as urban sprawl was just beginning in Miami, the transit authority thought building a light rail would be a solution to getting people around through the city. They had grand plans and ambitions, but they only wound up building about 11 miles of elevated track when they opened it 40 years ago. Metrorail was a bit of a mess in the early days and took on the nickname of “metrofail” for a while.
It’s since been expanded since, but the one thing you can say is that it was a nothing. Just concrete jutting from the ground, with nothing beneath it. Just broken bottles, overgrown weeds, concrete parking lots, and the homeless. But now, they’re making an effort to make it something. They call it the underline - which IMHO is pretty amusing.
By the way, the right of way they used was originally a train track owned by the FEC … which as you may recall was what was originally Henry Flagler’s rail to Key West. It remained a working rail line until sometime in the 1970s. And as my dad shared with me, it was used by the military during the Cuban missile crisis in the 60s to move weapons down to the keys efficiently. Miami acquired it when it fell into disuse and thus became metro rail.
The Miami Herald reported on progress, but it’s behind a paywall. You can read it here:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.