BROWARD COMMUTER RAIL

BROWARD COMMUTER RAIL (BCR) SOUTH

Project Development & Environment (PD&E) Study

FPID #: 452240-1

About the Project


Broward Commuter Rail (BCR) South Project

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and Broward County Transit have been evaluating alternatives for implementing commuter rail along the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway from Aventura in Miami-Dade County into Broward County since January 2021. This evaluation is a direct result of a previous study known as the ‘Coastal Link’ that evaluated 85 miles of commuter rail in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. On August 25, 2022, the Broward County Commission adopted a Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for Broward Commuter Rail South (BCR South) to extend commuter rail service on the FEC Railway corridor from the passenger station in the City of Aventura north to the City of Fort Lauderdale, a distance of 11.5 miles. Stations are recommended in the City of Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and South Fort Lauderdale. The South Fort Lauderdale station provides access to downtown Fort Lauderdale, Broward Health Medical Center, the Broward County Convention Center, Port Everglades, and the Beaches. The Broward County Commission directed staff to pursue grant funding from federal and state government sources to support the project, and to coordinate with the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and other organizations as appropriate in seeking such grant funding.

On December 2, 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced that the BCR South project was accepted into the Project Development (PD) phase. Entry into Project Development makes the project eligible for federal funding through the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program of FTA and allows funds expended by Broward County Transit to count towards the local match requirements of a future federal grant. On February 9, 2023, the Broward MPO voted to amend the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) to include BCR South as a Priority I project within the fiscally constrained portion of the plan, with PD funding programmed and approved in 2022 by both Broward County and FDOT.

Miami-Dade County is also studying the implementation of commuter rail service in the FEC corridor from Downtown Miami to the Brightline Station in Aventura, known as the Northeast Corridor. The Northeast Corridor is in the Project Development phase with the Federal Transit Administration making it eligible to compete for federal funding.

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