FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – People headed from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Port Everglades and the Broward County Convention Center could whiz above traffic as part of a planned elevated light rail system.
Broward County Transit officials hope to have rails up and trains moving before the end of the decade. Officials approved the $4.3 billion plan about a year ago.
If all goes according to plans, the three-mile first phase, running from FLL to the Port Everglades and convention center area, would be finished by 2028.
The system could grow bigger in the following years, possibly extending to Sawgrass Mills.
“It’s going to be a game changer,” Broward County Transit CEO Coree Cuff Lonergan told Local 10 News.
Currently, the only rail-based transit in Broward is the Tri-Rail commuter rail system, connecting the county with Miami-Dade and Palm Beach and operating west of Interstate 95.
A second project, an additional commuter rail system connecting the three counties, would run on tracks near U.S. 1, already used by the Brightline system.
Lonergan said the projects will be beneficial in many ways, including relieving heavy South Florida traffic.
If the elevated light rail system is built as planned, Broward County would become the second South Florida county with a form of rapid rail transit.
Miami-Dade County currently has the Metrorail heavy rail rapid transit system, as well as the Metromover automated people mover.
The Broward projects are currently in the environmental planning stages and there’s no word on when groundbreaking will begin.