Construction on the "All Aboard Florida" railway station is likely to begin in the latter half of 2013, project development officials said to the Miami Today, Thursday, May 9.
Plans of building a Grand Central Station for passenger service from downtown Miami to Orlando were first proposed in June 2012. The Florida East Coast Industries (FECI), one of the largest infrastructure companies of Florida, had then decided to use nine acres of its downtown Miami land to build the station.
When the initial plans were unraveled, Husein Cumber, who is spearheading the All Aboard Florida project for FECI said that they wanted to turn the station into a place that would have everything from offices to residences. It was then announced that the project would break ground in early 2013, reports Business Journal.
However, as the project is still in its design phase, it will start by the end of the year.
The main purpose of the station is to provide cheap and convenient travel options for passengers by connecting Central and South Florida via a 230-mile blue-line route. According to Miami Today, the nine acre site in downtown Miami was the original site of the Old Miami Grand Central Station and currently serves as a large parking lot. It will be redeveloped to make way for the station terminals. Each train is to have a capacity of 400 passengers. The trains will offer services and amenities like Wi-Fi Internet, beverage services and gourmet meals, luggage accommodation, coach service and reserved business seating. Fares are yet to be determined.
Check out some schematics of the proposed station, here.
"We'll turn that neighborhood into a very connected urban village, and we'll become a very significant intermodal kind of facility that will link our infrastructure and transportation uses with many of the other existing transportation uses, like the Metrorail and Metromover station, which exist adjacent to the station," Michael Reininger, Chief Development Officer and President of FECI said to Miami Today.
"We are certainly developing this new business as a competitive business and we know that we'll be competing with other modes of transportation that are available, like air travel and cars," he added.
Check out the planned route of the train, here.
