Broward County outlines commuter rail and Oakland Park BRT plan, seeks federal funds

Broward County transit officials told the Oakland Park City Commission on Feb. 18 that the county’s PRIMO plan aims to add 200 miles of new transit, including commuter rail and bus rapid transit, and that a southern phase of the Broward Commuter Rail (BCR South) could link Aventura to downtown Miami with three Broward stations.

Corey Cuff Lonergan, presenting a county update, said the county submitted a roughly 5,000-page application to the Federal Transit Administration seeking about $351,000,000 in federal support for BCR South, which the county estimates will cost about $712,000,000 in total. “We are really hopeful that we’re successful there,” he said.

The county also described BCR North — a roughly 15-mile segment that would include four stations proposed for Deerfield, Fort Lauderdale, Oakland Park and Pompano — and a proposed bus rapid transit (BRT) line running east–west on Oakland Park Boulevard. The BRT proposal calls for center platforms, off-board fare collection and service every 10–20 minutes. The presenter said the corridor currently carries about 6,000 daily riders and that the county is studying whether dedicated lanes or shared-center operation is most feasible.

Cuff Lonergan told the commission the county is conducting traffic and FDOT impact studies to decide whether a dedicated lane is warranted. “In an ideal world…a lane of traffic would be the right answer,” he said, “but it may not be the right answer for us, and it may not be the right answer right now,” citing ongoing traffic modeling.

Commissioners asked about coordination with Miami-Dade County and funding partnerships. The presenter said the federal application for the southern phase is Broward’s alone while Miami-Dade pursued a separate grant. He also said commuter-rail access depends on agreements with corridor owners and that litigation and arbitration between freight and passenger operators could affect timing.

Why it matters: the plan would add high-capacity transit options that could reduce travel times across South Florida and support transit-oriented development; however, county officials emphasized the projects remain contingent on federal funding, negotiations over corridor access and traffic studies to minimize local impacts.

What’s next: county staff said corridor planning, station planning and traffic analysis will continue through 2026, with final design and permitting expected in the mid- to late-2020s and an opening target of 2030.