By train (May 13)

To almost no one I communicated with up North did it seem like South Florida could possibly be a mass transit mecca. But there are - as I've pointed out - actually three different train systems in the Miami area (not counting Amtrak). That may be too many. I posted in an earlier blog entry references to the old "People Mover" train that lumbers for free through downtown Miami - kind of like a similar train in downtown Detroit - complete with pictures of the track. I rode one of these during my Florida book research visit to Miami 10 years ago. But on this trip I planned ahead to ride two other suburban commuter train systems, at least one of which (and probably both) I'd never been on before. Mom and I had a debate beforehand as to whether the train that runs through Coral Gables is at ground or above-ground (like a monorail). I turned out to be right - it's above ground. Daniel and I actually drove around the station for a while looking for Fed Ex boxes, until he finally dropped me off at the station about five minutes before the scheduled train. An indication of how infrequently some progressive South Miami/Coral Gables folks ride the train may be that he told me the fare was $1.50 and in fact it is $2 now. Luckily, I had enough change. Pictured above and below are views of the tracks and the surrounding streets from the Coral Gables station.

The northbound train (below) came into the Coral Gables/University of Miami station just a few minutes later. The end of the line is only about three stations south of this, and so this was a relatively empty train.

The train roared north and into downtown Miami.

It crossed the Miami River that reminds me of the river in Chicago.

No doubt we criss-crossed one of the roads that Andrea and I had been on the night before.

I believe that huge empty lot below is the site of the old (but actually relatively new) (pink) Miami River.

Past the Miami Arena site the train goes through a relatively rough working-class neighborhood - the only neighborhood I was nervous driving through during my book research, you'll recall - but I didn't get any good pictures. Pictured below is the side of a high school named for an African American history figure (but alas I don't remember who - maybe Booker T. Washington).

It was lunchtime, but the train was already empyting out (below) as we headed northeast out of town, probably towards Hialeah.

The colorful houses pictured below are actually in much better shape than ones I had seen a few minutes earlier.

A giant flea market was one of the last sites the train passed before I prepared to disembark, for the transfer station.

As I got off at the transfer station and went down to ground level (by stairway, I think - although I was trying to be careful about my possible hernia) - I passed this system map (notice that there's only one line, which is one of the knocks against this system). I'm at the station where the gray line passes the green line (the train I'd just gotten off - the Metrorail - represented by the green line).

Andrea had encouraged me to be cautious, and so I had gotten there earlier enough to wait about half an hour for the northbound Tri-Rail train heading towards West Palm Beach. The knock against the Tri-Rail system is that they went for a freight rail track that I believe Amtrak also uses which is way west of town. This may be convenient for people driving to and from suburban stations, but not that convenient if you're trying to go all mass transit like I was, and also takes people nowhere near downtown destinations like the American Airlines Arena. The Tri-Rail trains were interestingly tall. I had ended up buying my ticket from a person in a booth instead of the machine. I actually got a receipt to expense account the second train ride ($3) (which was saving the church some taxi fare)

The picture my book painted - subtlely - of Anglos moving out of Miami-Dade County for Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach is obviously somewhat dated. At least on this suburban commuter rail train headed towards Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Latinos were in the majority. Most looked relatively well off.

Taking the elevator off and then down after I got off, I disembarked from the train about 40 minutes into the trip, just over the Broward County line in Hollywood. We had passed a Tri-Rail rail yard earlier on and then mainly passed industrial-type sites until we were training along Interstate 95.

Not a badly designed train station, that Hollywood train station.

Next, I was headed towards the parking lot in search of a cab. I had not pinpointed tha tthere would be cabs there and how much it would cost, and so I was relatively lucky. . . .

-- Perry