When Tri-Rail Executive Director David Dech arrived in Tallahassee this week for the annual state legislative session, he took along what is probably the South Florida rail line’s most important sales aid: a report of record ridership for 2025.
He’ll need it as he spearheads Tri-Rail’s lobbying drive to restore millions in funding cuts announced last year by the Florida Department of Transportation. Without the money, Dech has said Tri-Rail has enough cash to run through July 2027. Elected commissioners in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties all have said they lack the resources to help replace the money the FDOT cut.
Instead of contributing a statutory minimum of $42.1 million — and as much as $62 million annually as it has in the past — the state transportation agency informed the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees Tri-Rail, that the new figure would be $15 million starting with the 2025-26 fiscal year, which started last July. In the interim, the line has been dipping into dwindling reserves to prop up a $150 million budget. The three counties Tri-Rail serves also contribute annual subsidies of $4 million to go along with the fares paid by riders.
Record ridership figures
Proof of Tri-Rail’s value to the public came in the form of an announcement last week from the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, Tri-Rail’s oversight agency, which reported that the rail line surpassed 4.5 million rides during the calendar year 2025, “establishing a new all-time ridership record for the regional commuter rail system.”
“This milestone follows the achievement from Tri-Rail’s fiscal year [from July 2024 through June 2025] that surpassed 4.5 million rides, as well,” the authority said in a statement. “With this performance, Tri-Rail has exceeded its previous record set in 2019, when the system surpassed 4.4 million rides in both the fiscal and calendar years.”
“We were not kidding when we said last year that we planned to keep breaking our own records,” Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Marci Woodward, the authority chair, said in the statement. “The value of this system speaks for itself, and it shows that more than ever we must continue to protect this essential service, which serves as a critical asset for the region.”
Dech, a veteran railroad executive who took over Tri-Rail’s operations in 2022 after previously serving as vice president of rail operations at Capital Metro, the mass transit agency for Austin, Texas, was in Tallahassee on Tuesday and not immediately available for comment.
In the statement the authority issued last week, Dech said the rail line is working to sustain the riding public’s support.
“Our passengers are the lifeblood of this system and we are deeply grateful for their continued support,” he said. “We will repay that trust by continuing to enhance the service in every way possible and try to provide the best possible travel experience that South Florida deserves.”
On Tuesday, Tri-Rail spokesman Victor Garcia said Dech and the rail line’s lobbying team, which is also in Tallahassee, are arranging as many meetings as they can with lawmakers. Woodward is attending the session in her role as Palm Beach County’s vice mayor and is also helping with the Tri-Rail funding effort, according to Garcia.
“He feels still cautiously optimistic about it,” Garcia said of Dech. “Everybody is still working towards it. There are good signs. It’s just a matter of how we’re going to get it done.”
‘Additional’ I-95 lane
After starting service more than 35 years ago, Tri-Rail has emerged in recent years as a steady, if not glamorous, mode of transportation for daily inter-county commuters going to work, or “choice” riders headed for one of the region’s three international airports or entertainment events around the region.
The line serves 19 stations from Magonia Park near West Palm Beach, the northernmost point of the system, through Broward and Miami-Dade counties to Miami International Airport. In January 2024, Tri-Rail opened a long-antipicated 9-mile east-west extension that connects its main line with the Brightline station in downtown Miami.
Originally started as a commuter relief valve during an Interstate 95 widening project, Tri-Rail points out that it is “the equivalent of an additional lane on I-95” and a “cornerstone of mobility in South Florida. The system helps alleviate roadway congestion, connect communities, and support regional economic growth.”
Special trains, special events
Tri-Rail says it again began a new year with a “special service” providing post-midnight train rides for partygoers celebrating at Miami’s Bayfront.
“The system is also well positioned in 2026 to serve spectators attending events at Miami Freedom Park, which is inaugurating this year, and is a key partner in Miami-Dade County’s transportation committee for the FIFA World Cup,” the line said in its statement. “Tri-Rail is actively preparing to provide transportation for World Cup matches and associated Fan Festival activities.”
Still, in an act of political survival for the budget wars in Tallahassee, the governing board voted late last year to kill most of its ride-partner services with Uber, Lyft and traditional taxi firms to save money.
The board temporarily retained the services to and from Palm Beach International Airport pending replacement service by the countywide bus system.