Tri-rail, Miami’s cheapest train option, is coming to downtown this month.

Tri-Rail said its trains will arrive in downtown Miami in late January, kicking off city service planned for 2016, according to local press reports.

Tri-Rail, a cheaper and tax-subsidized option for Brightline trains on the I-95 corridor, finally announced this weekend that its Miami station will open on Saturday, January 13th.

On that date, Tri-Rail trains will begin running from a shared space at the downtown Brightline complex to a regular Tri-Rail stop at the existing transit station in Hialeah, already served by Tri-Rail and Metrorail.

“It’s finally becoming a reality,” said Raquel Regalado, a Miami-Dade County commissioner and Tri-Rail board member who helped oust the organization’s previous director over service delays in Miami. “We have overcome many obstacles,” he added.

Tri-Rail, the cheapest train option in Miami.

The launch was delayed by several setbacks, including the discovery in 2021 that the Brightline platform built at the downtown station for Tri-Rail was too wide for Tri-Rail trains, officials said.

Two months later, then-Tri-Rail CEO Steven Abrams announced his resignation, citing disagreements with Regalado and other board members.

While Metrorail trains already serve the same route, Tri-Rail’s Downtown Link will be the first to offer express service. However, travelers will have to wait for the direct route from West Palm Beach to Miami that Tri-Rail proposed at the project’s launch.

Tri-Rail, funded by federal, state and local funds and operated by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, is now terminating its Miami-Dade service south of Hialeah Station at Miami International Airport (MINE).