The governing board of Tri-Rail, South Florida’s publicly subsidized commuter line, bid adieu to Executive Director David Dech on Friday, named his deputy as interim leader and approved a search firm to find a permanent replacement.
Diane Hernandez del Calvo, who has worked for the railroad for more than two decades, was unanimously named by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority board to temporarily run the more than three-decades-old operation that served more than 4.5 million travelers last year in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
The board’s monthly meeting Friday was the last one for Dech, and it was his last day on the job.
An auditorium in the Tri-Rail headquarters building next to the rail line’s Pompano Beach station was heavily populated by staff members and contractors, as well as Dech’s wife, Kathy.
Last month, the career railroader from Ohio announced he was leaving to take command of a Midwest commuter line that operates between South Bend, Ind., and Chicago.
Confident in restored funding
Dech, who started with Tri-Rail in August 2022, said he would not have departed if he believed the Legislature would not restore a $27 million funding cut to the Tri-Rail budget incurred last year.
For the better part of 2024, Dech has spearheaded the railroad’s lobbying campaign to restore the money which was cut, a move that Dech estimates would bring Tri-Rail to a halt by July 2027 if the funds were not replaced.
“We’re in session and nothing is finalized,” he told the board Friday. “But the mood, the temperature in Tallahassee is very supportive. I have extreme confidence in the folks that are leading this charge in Tallahassee. The commitments that people have given us over the last six months — they are living up to the things they’ve said they were going to do. … I have no indication that this will not end up in committee and not end up in our favor.”
“If I thought that the funding was not going to be restored, if I thought this was a sinking ship, I would stay here and go down with it,” he said. “But I don’t think that. I have the utmost confidence the funding is going to be restored and with a clear conscience I can move on to where I’m going.”
Fare boost approved
Board members, understanding the railroad itself is responsible for contributing to the annual pool of funds, voted to move forward with a 10% fare increase that would be installed later this year.
All fares in Tri-Rail’s Byzantine pricing scheme would be rounded up to the next dollar, except for the line’s $5 weekend fare, which will remain in place. The weekend fare allows customers to ride anywhere all day within the system — one-way or roundtrip.
The proposed increase needs to be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration for approval. Then, an FTA-mandated public hearing would take place and another 30 days would have to pass before the increases are implemented.
No timetable for those events has been set.
Both Dech and board member Raquel Regalado, who represents Miami-Dade County, noted there has not been any price increase since 2019.
Plaudits and proclamations
The board members agreed that the new executive director should have professional experience that mirrors the resume that Dech brought to South Florida: that of a railroader. He started his career with the CSX freight giant as a switchman, rising to engineer. He came to Tri-Rail from Capitol Metro in Austin, Texas, where he served as vice president of rail operations.
The firm K&A Partners, the Bethesda, Md., firm that located Dech more than nearly four years ago, will conduct the search for his replacement.
In both style and substance, members noted, Tri-Rail’s operations improved across the board under Dech’s stewardship, as he fostered an agency-wide culture of teamwork and accountability.
Among a long list of accomplishments, he is credited with activating a stalled plan for Tri-Rail to start serving the MiamiCentral station in downtown Miami, which it now shares with Brightline.
Under Dech’s tenure, Tri-Rail’s on-time performance dramatically improved, the rail corridor that runs from north of West Palm Beach to Miami International Airport was cleared of homeless camps, new locomotives were ordered, passenger coaches were fixed and cleaned up, and an array of other equipment has been ordered or installed to improve day-to-day train operations.
Equally important, members noted, Dech built and sustained working relationships with various individuals and private and public sector organizations that do business with Tri-Rail.
Board members from each of the three counties presented him with proclamations from their respective boards of commissioners recognizing Dech’s work.
Miami-Dade proclaimed Friday “David Dech Day.”
“Remember on your first day I told you this was going to be a painful experience?” recalled Regalado. “I apologized to your wife and said, ‘I’m so sorry we put him through all this stuff but we have a lot of cleanup to do.’ But you’ve been such a great sport.”
“It has been a heck of a ride,” Dech told the audience. “It has been one of the most humbling and honoring experiences that I’ve had in my life.”
“When you go to these jobs your goal is always to try to leave it in a better place than you found it,” he added. “I think we’ve done that. But personally the South Shore line is going to have to thank the people in this room. Because I am definitely stronger and better at what I do having spent the time here.”
