How is this done? Have called the very very rude Keys Shuttle service. They said they don't know where the Amtrak station is, they were located in the Keys, so they could not pick up from there Really? No GPS? I understand not providing the shuttle service from the Amtrak Station, but to say the reason is they don't know where the Amtrak station was defied belief. And gave me a bad feeling about that company.
Anyhow, if someone has a specific shuttle service that would help with this that would be great.
Also, is the station in a bad part of town in case I have to drive there myself to do the pickup?

As you know, websites like Fla-keys.com and ehow list Keys shuttle as the only service, maybe someone should notify these sites that KeysShuttle seems to know nothing about it?

Taxi is listed as $120, there is Greyhound bus service for $20 but it only leaves at 12:25pm and 5:45pm

When I looked into taking the train from Miami there seemed to be no good option for getting to the station other than a taxi, plus it did indeed seem to be in a dicey area.

There's a new station,Miami Central Station, not dicey. It's only 4 miles from the airport so you could taxi from Amtrak and then take one of the many airport shuttles to Key Largo. There is also bus service to the airport picking up right outside of Amtrak on the curb....or you can walk a couple of blocks and catch a Metrorail/Tri Rail transfer to Miami airport.

I did something similar back in 2008, having to get from the Miami Amtrak station to downtown to catch a Greyhound bus to Key West. Unless you rent a car, I'd recommend spending the night in Miami downtown somewhere and plod along to the Keys the next day since you never know how late the Amtrak train will arrive in Miami. I recollect that it was about $25 to get a cab from the train station to downtown, more or less; I believe there is a public transit option, but by the time I arrived in Miami, I was tired and just wanted to get to my hotel. Let us know if you find another public transit plan that works.

You have to walk south on 37th Ave NW about 0.3 mi and then west another 0.2 along Rt. 934 to get to the Southbound MRL subway. You can get from there to South Miami in about 50 minutes according to the Miami Transit website.
http://www.miamidade.gov/transit/
At least the South Miami station is right next to US 1.

Thank all of you so very much. This is helpful info. I take it that the station is new and not in cracktown. That's a relief.
I thought the same thing clarkgriswold: The shuttle the website mentioned as providing service from the train station doesn't actually provide the service or know anything about that? Huh....Well now isn't that just great. Grrrrr....
Greyhound: called them, train arrives too late at 6 pm for that option. Thank you so much for the suggestion:"It's only 4 miles from the airport so you could taxi from Amtrak and then take one of the many airport shuttles to Key Largo. There is also bus service to the airport picking up right outside of Amtrak on the curb....or you can walk a couple of blocks and catch a Metrorail/Tri Rail transfer to Miami airport."
This is a 65+age lady we are talking about, getting off the train at 6 pm (coming in from 24 hours on the train) and then trying to find her way around to get to the airport to take a shuttle. Which sounds perfectly doable to me, but I have never been there before, so what do I know!

Do you think it's easy enough AND safe enough for an able-bodied older person to do? The emphasis being on safe. She's capable of much walking, just not very savvy when it comes to traveling. I really really REALLY hate the thought that I have to drive up from Key Largo to pick her up when if she had just FLOWN it would have been so easy.....No good deed goes unpunished!

If it's a time of year when it's still light out at 6pm, I'm sure she'll be more up for the walk. Whether it will be "easy" depends on how light she travels.

I'm sure there will be other passengers walking over to take a metro connection to downtown or the airport and she could walk along with them...or share a cab with someone to get to the airport shuttles.

Tell her to take a taxi to the airport.

Send her the fare.

Your gas from Key Largo will cost more, even if you value your time at 0. But I would make sure that a shuttle really will be available if her train is as late as it could be.

I find Daniel_Williams to be a reliable and realistic guide to train travel. Several of us are optimists or train buffs. He is practical ( and writes great trip reports).

Ackislander-- You made my morning. Thank you. I always appreciate your input on this forum too. I questioned afterward reading responses however whether I gave good advice here, given that I was unaware of the airport shuttles from Miami Dade International to Key Largo.

My only concern is train delay: the four times in recent years I've taken the southbound train to Florida the train has ranged from on-time three times to an hour late once, so all may go well catching the shuttle the night the train arrives. I know however that sometimes that train is late on the order of sometimes several hours. It's critical to have a backup plan. Perhaps as a backup plan in case of train delay, she could taxi to a Miami airport hotel, spend the night there and continue by shuttle to Key Largo the next morning?

I hope all goes well. Daniel

I really cannot thank all of you enough. This has made me a lot less anxious about the whole thing. I LOVE plans with backup plans!
I'll have her do the taxi/shuttle thing from train station to airport, then have her catch a shuttle to my house. YAY!! Since she's supposed to get in at 6 pm, I think catching a 9 p shuttle should more than cover any bad scenarios. I'll check to see if she can bump up her arrival time so she could maybe catch an earlier shuttle, but still, just to not have to go get her and to know that there are ways to do this (other than my car!) however inconvenient (to her!)--is a load off my mind.
Thank you thank you thank you!