Jesse Scheckner
After years of delays and a price tag that ballooned by more than $100 million, Miami-Dade County’s revamped South Dade Transitway is expected to begin service later this Summer, county officials confirmed.
The 20-mile route, one of six priority corridors in Miami-Dade’s Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Program, will offer Bus Rapid Transit between the Dadeland South Metrorail Station and Florida City, with service similar to Metrorail in terms of speed and convenience.
It is the first of six SMART corridors to advance to construction under the long-planned initiative to overhaul regional transit.
As first reported by Miami Today, Maria Perdomo of the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) said that while testing of vehicles and gate-enforced intersections is ongoing, 14 new stations along the line have been substantially completed and accepted by the county.
Construction on the project began in 2021, with an original target opening of 2022. The timeline was repeatedly pushed back due to equipment testing issues, a lag in electric bus deliveries and pandemic-related delays that contributed to increased costs.
The county has still not received half the 100 battery-electric buses it ordered for the BRT system. Just 42 have been delivered by manufacturer New Flyer, Perdomo told members of the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, which oversees Miami-Dade’s halfpenny transportation surtax. DTPW Interim Director Alex Barrios estimated in March that the remainder will arrive by the end of the year.
However, while exterior pieces remain pending, Perdomo reported that the transitway’s infrastructure is nearly complete, with 90% of roadway intersections — complete with synchronized gate arms, traffic signals, and related pavement markings — integrated into the system.
The upgraded service will feature 14 new stations, prepaid fares, level boarding platforms and exclusive use of 60-foot electric buses. Those and other enhancements will provide riders with service akin to “rail on rubber tires,” U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez said in August 2018, before County Commissioners approved the project.
The South Dade Transitway, labeled the South Corridor in the SMART Program, is expected to come online ahead of five other commuting corridors targeted for upgrades in the plan. They include the long-delayed North Corridor to Hard Rock Stadium, the Beach Corridor from Miami to Miami Beach, the East-West Corridor from the Miami Intermodal Center to Tamiami Station, the Northeast Corridor between Miami and Aventura on Brightline-owned tracks, and the Kendall Corridor between Dadeland and Krome Avenue just east of the Everglades.
While the SMART Program is now technically in its eighth year, many of the corridors it highlights for upgrades have long been considered for improvement. That includes the North Corridor, now planned to feature Metrorail service to Hard Rock Stadium near the Miami-Dade County line, which has been studied in one form or another since the 1990s.
Miami-Dade residents are hungry for better transit options. A nonbinding question on the Aug. 20 Primary ballot found 78.5% of voters think the county should expand its Metrorail, passenger rail and Metromover services.
Fulfilling that wish will be pricey. Miami-Dade Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, a past Chair of the panel and the county’s Transportation Planning Organization, estimated in December that expanding rail service countywide would cost at least $6 billion.
