The Palm Beach Post – Five things to know about tonight’s Coast Guard meeting on All Aboard Florida

By Kim Miller

The US Coast Guard is holding a meeting in Stuart tonight to hear concerns from boaters about All Aboard Florida’s passenger rail project.

The meeting will be held 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the John F. Armstrong Wing Auditorium of the Blake Library, 2351 SE Monterey Road, Stuart.

A meeting in Jupiter is scheduled for Friday between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Town of Jupiter Council Chambers, 210 Military Trail, Jupiter.

Five things to know about the meetings:

1. Unlike meetings organized by the Federal Railroad Administration to discuss an environmental impact statement on the project, the three Coast Guard forums will be conducted in a traditional format during which attendees will get two minutes each to speak publicly. The Federal Railroad Administration meetings allowed people to speak privately with a court reporter or submit written comment.
2. Coast Guard officials cautioned this week that they want to hear specific navigational concerns, not general remarks about All Aboard Florida.
3. All Aboard Florida intends to run 32 passenger trains per day on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. The plan has drawn the ire of ­many residents in northern Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast .
4. The Coast Guard’s focus is on three aging drawbridges that stay open for boat traffic but close when a train approaches. The bridges are the New River bridge in Fort Lauderdale, the Loxahatchee River bridge in Jupiter and the St. Lucie River bridge in Stuart.
5. The Coast Guard cannot order All Aboard Florida to change its project or update bridges, but it can regulate how often and when the bridges must be open to preserve safe channels.