The Biden administration revealed on Monday its proposal to allocate approximately $263.7 million in its budget for a new commuter rail service catering to northeastern Miami-Dade County.
Dubbed the Northeast Corridor Rapid Transit Project, it aims to link existing train stations in downtown Miami and Aventura with five new stations in between, utilizing Florida East Coast Railway tracks already utilized by Brightline.
These stations would be situated at Northeast 27th Street in Wynwood, Northeast 39th Street in the Miami Design District, Northeast 61st Street in Little Haiti, Northeast 123rd Street in North Miami, and Northeast 151st Street near the Florida International University Biscayne Bay Campus in North Miami.
According to a project report, the service is slated to operate seven days a week for approximately 19 hours per day, with trains running every 30 minutes during weekday peak periods and every 60 minutes during off-peak periods and weekends.
Passengers would have the opportunity to transfer to the Metrorail and Metromover systems at MiamiCentral station.
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The federal funding of $263.7 million would cover just under half of the total project cost of $538 million.
Initial estimates project an average daily ridership of 9,400 passengers if the service were to commence today, with expectations of increasing to 17,100 passengers per day by 2045.