Volks, if there are still a "doubting Thomas" or two out there, it's time to accept that the only station in "Miami" Amtrak will serve is the existing facility that actually is in Hialeah.
It's been addressed here that for operations, it's "the hot setup". There's a loop track there (the station was built on former SAL maintenance grounds) which minimizes the "late set copout", and should last minute commissary supplies be needed, it's all there.
Passenger convenience? the only segment of passengers benefitting from the MIC would be those desiring to rent autos. I think that is few in number; in station auto rental facilities have one thing in common - they fold. Taxicabs or "being met" are the usual "last mile" (more likely "last ten miles" considering the station's location). The only possible improvement coming to mind would be if a jitney operator, such as Shuttle America, could assign a bus to the station at train time, but given how the Miami area is so much a "car-centric sprawl", even that could have its limits.
An Amtrak Metrorail "walking transfer" is ill-advised; along with others around here, I've done it in broad daylight. But, laden with luggage - even wheelies, it's not for the "average Amtrak passenger" to consider.
But let me close on an off-topic observation. I do not have any pieces of wheeled luggage to my name. Such would break my travel maxim of "if you can't carry it, don't bring it". However, by the next time I take an overnight trip (baring family emergency), I'll be 80yo, and neighbors who know of my travel maxim are becoming "concerned".
It's been addressed here that for operations, it's "the hot setup". There's a loop track there (the station was built on former SAL maintenance grounds) which minimizes the "late set copout", and should last minute commissary supplies be needed, it's all there.
Passenger convenience? the only segment of passengers benefitting from the MIC would be those desiring to rent autos. I think that is few in number; in station auto rental facilities have one thing in common - they fold. Taxicabs or "being met" are the usual "last mile" (more likely "last ten miles" considering the station's location). The only possible improvement coming to mind would be if a jitney operator, such as Shuttle America, could assign a bus to the station at train time, but given how the Miami area is so much a "car-centric sprawl", even that could have its limits.
An Amtrak Metrorail "walking transfer" is ill-advised; along with others around here, I've done it in broad daylight. But, laden with luggage - even wheelies, it's not for the "average Amtrak passenger" to consider.
But let me close on an off-topic observation. I do not have any pieces of wheeled luggage to my name. Such would break my travel maxim of "if you can't carry it, don't bring it". However, by the next time I take an overnight trip (baring family emergency), I'll be 80yo, and neighbors who know of my travel maxim are becoming "concerned".
