The governing board of Tri-Rail will address the issue of replacing departing Executive Director David Dech at its board meeting next month, one of its members said Thursday.
Dech, who has been executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority since 2022, resigned the post effective March 16 after accepting an offer as president of a commuter rail line in Indiana.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Broward County Commissioner Lamar Fisher, who serves on the SFRTA board, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the resignation was not a surprise to the 10-member board as Dech informed them earlier this month he was in talks to become president and general manager of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. The line’s trains serve a 90-mile stretch on the south shore of Lake Michigan between the Michiana Regional Airport in South Bend, Indiana, and Randolph Street Station in Chicago, according to its website.
“Mr. Dech called us a week ago,” Fisher said, adding the executive director “wanted to call each board member personally.”
Dech is out of the office this week and unavailable for comment, a spokesman said.
“His main reason behind it was that it’s a family matter, and I couldn’t argue with that at all,” Fisher said. “His knowledge and expertise was parallel to none in this industry. I’m sure we will find a replacement to carry it on, and he will be sorely missed.”
One of the key contributions Dech made was his leadership in rallying support among state legislators to restore millions in subsidies that are critical to Tri-Rail’s operation. Dech has said the cuts placed the railroad, a public utility that relies heavily on county, state and federal funds, on a path where it would run out of money by mid-2027.
Although slightly shorter in length than the Indiana line at 73.5 miles, Tri-Rail served a record 4.5 million passengers last year among 19 stops in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Last week, Dech told the authority’s board that he was “encouraged” by the responses in Tallahassee to Tri-Rail’s pitch for funding.
Fisher said he did not believe Dech’s departure would hinder the lobbying effort. Besides Dech, SFRTA chair and Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Marci Woodward and others have been visiting legislators in Tallahassee.
“David was the leader but we have a tremendous team behind him,” Fisher said. “David has felt all along it will be a positive outcome. We will keep that momentum going.”
“The need is there and we are confident we will get the funding back in place to continue this great service,” Fisher said.
Search forthcoming
As for a search for a replacement, Fisher said, “we’ll decide that as a board at our coming board meeting in February.” The meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27.
“We’ll need to put someone in during the interim,” Fisher said. He said his personal vote would go to Diane Hernandez Del Calvo, the deputy executive director whose Tri-Rail career spans nearly 27 years.
“She’s very knowledgeable and she could very well be our selection,” Fisher said. “It’s up to the board [to have] that conversation.”
Service, ridership growth
Dech started working at Tri-Rail in August 2022, bringing with him a reputation as a detail-oriented executive who was vice president of operations at Capital Metro, the mass transit system in Austin, Texas.
His immediate task at Tri-Rail was to complete a project to expand service into downtown Miami at the MiamiCentral station now shared with Brightline. Passengers can get there by using an 8-mile extension controlled by the Florida East Coast Railway from Tri-Rail’s main line.
Among Dech’s other accomplishments, according to Tri-Rail:
- Increased weekday trains from 50 to 76 and weekend trains from 30 to 53.
- Introduced Tri-Rail express service between West Palm Beach and MiamiCentral, reducing travel time by more than 30 minutes.
- Achieved full ridership recovery post-pandemic, with Tri-Rail reaching 4.4 million riders in 2024 and more than 4.5 million rides in calendar year 2025, the highest in system history.
- Set new weekend and special-event ridership records with highest Saturday during Tri-Rail’s 2024 Rail Fun Day and Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival, and highest Sunday during Ultra Music 2024, with special train service added to accommodate concertgoers.