U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to board an afternoon Brightline train from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday to help underscore the Biden Administration’s efforts to fund improvements at airports, seaports, rail line and roadways in Florida and elsewhere around the nation.
The ride was to come after the secretary delivered an hourlong speech about transportation before business and political leaders at The Forum of the Palm Beaches at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
As President Joe Biden lines up a campaign for a second term in the White House in 2024, the president himself and various administration officials have been touring the country publicizing the benefits of billions generated from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was passed by Congress in 2021. The law allocated $108 billion for various public transportation projects around the U.S.
Brightline, however, is a higher speed rail line supported mainly by private investors. Started in 2018 as a three-county inter-city passenger railroad in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, the company recently expanded its service to Orlando to add to the five existing South Florida stops in Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach.
Millions of federal dollars, however, have been directed toward safety improvements along the Florida East Coast Railway line, which is used by Brightline. The money has come via the Federal Railroad Administration, a regulatory agency under the U.S. Department of Transportation umbrella.
Late last month, the FRA awarded Brightline a $1.648 million grant to develop an Artificial Intelligence-backed monitoring system to collect data about trespass activity along the railroad’s tracks. The data will be used to help Brightline decide how and where to deploy more improvements along the line.
Tri-Rail, meanwhile, the publicly subsidized commuter line between the West Palm Beach area and Miami International Airport, is receiving a $71.4 million federal grant to upgrade its aging train sets.
In the universe of road building and repairs, Florida is expected to receive approximately $13.3 billion over five years in highways and bridges, according to the DOT. To date, $5.4 billion has been announced for specific road, bridge and safety, projects.
A two-day tour
According to DOT officials, Buttigieg was scheduled to meet Tuesday and Wednesday with local government leaders and workers from all three counties “to hear how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is benefitting South Florida,” according to a media advisory distributed by the agency.
Among those to meet Buttigieg at Brightline’s stations on Tuesday include Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher, and Palm Beach County Mayor Gregg Weiss. For all of the local officials, a meeting with Buttigieg looms as an opportunity to make a pitch for funds for a proposed local commuter rail service along the Florida East Coast Railway line that has been under study for years by the Florida Department of Transportation and is gaining political traction in Miami-Dade and Broward.
On Wednesday, the secretary is scheduled to meet with Miami-Dade County Mayor Mayor Daniella Levine Cava for a news conference at PortMiami. There, the leaders will discuss federal investments in port infrastructure “to improve the efficiency and resiliency of our supply chains — helping to bring down shipping costs,” according to the DOT statement.
There were no meetings scheduled for Port Everglades or the Port of Palm Beach, or at any of the region’s three international airports.
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