Hubbry Logo
search
logo
2178315

Metromover

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
Metromover

Metromover is a fare-free automated people mover system operated by Miami-Dade Transit in Miami, Florida, United States. Metromover serves the Downtown Miami, Brickell, Park West and Arts & Entertainment District neighborhoods. Metromover connects directly with Metrorail at Government Center and Brickell stations. It also connects to Metrobus with dedicated bus loops at Government Center and Adrienne Arsht Center station. It originally began service to the Downtown/Inner Loop on April 17, 1986, and was later expanded with the Omni and Brickell Loop extensions on May 26, 1994.

The Metromover serves primarily as an alternative way to travel within the greater Downtown Miami neighborhoods. The system is composed of three loops and 21 stations. The stations are located approximately two blocks away from each other, and connect near all major buildings and places in the Downtown area. As of 2024, the system has 7,246,500 rides per year, or about 21,800 per day in the second quarter of 2025.

Out of three downtown people movers in the United States, the other two being the Jacksonville Skyway and the Detroit People Mover, the Metromover is by far the busiest in terms of ridership, the only completed system of the three, and considered to be a catalyst for downtown development.

In 1987, the then-one-year-old people mover system set a record in daily ridership of 33,053 on a Saturday, attributed to the new Bayside Marketplace. That same year was when the planning began to extend the system to Brickell and Arts & Entertainment District (then Omni), which would not be completed until 1994. Until November 2002 when the half-penny transit tax was approved, the Metromover had a fare of 25 cents. The fare was lifted because it was realized that the cost of collecting the fare nearly exceeded the revenue generated from the fare, as well as the fact that the eliminated fare would likely lead to more Metrorail ridership. After becoming free, from 2002 to 2005, along with a large increase in population, rising gas prices and booming downtown development, Metromover ridership nearly doubled from 4.7 million in 2002 to about 9 million in 2005. However, ridership fell with the subsequent economic downturn and high unemployment in the latter half of the decade. By 2012, ridership had once again increased with downtown population, high gas prices and a recovering economy. In early 2011, Metromover saw an increase in ridership during a sharp peak in gas prices, at the same time as there was a decrease in Metrorail and Metrobus ridership as well as a decrease in employment. However, from January 2010 to January 2011, Metrorail saw a 7% increase in ridership, and both Metrorail and Metromover were expected to see additional ridership increases throughout 2011 due to rising fuel prices. When the Omni and Brickell extensions were first planned, it was estimated that ridership on the fared system would reach 43,000 daily by 2000, a number the now free system has yet to reach.

There are 21 accessible Metromover stations located throughout Downtown Miami and Brickell roughly every two blocks. The Metromover links all of Downtown and Brickell's major office buildings, residential buildings, hotels, and retail centers. Major attractions such as the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, American Airlines Arena, Arsht Performing Arts Center, the Cultural Plaza (Miami Art Museum, Historical Museum of Southern Florida, Miami Main Library), Bayside Marketplace, Mary Brickell Village, Miami-Dade College, Museum Park (which services Perez Art Museum Miami as well as the Frost Science Museum) and the Brickell Financial District can all be reached by the Metromover.

Running clockwise, the Downtown (Inner) Loop serves all Downtown stations except Third Street station. The Outer Loop (Brickell and Omni Loops) runs counterclockwise and share tracks around the downtown area, serving all stations except for Miami Avenue Station. The Brickell loop runs a line into the Brickell area to the south of downtown, while the Omni Loop contains a line with stations in the Arts & Entertainment District neighborhood north of Downtown. This unusual pattern, a circular central loop where the trains running counterclockwise are those running from and back to destinations outside the loop, whereas trains in the opposite clockwise direction are only running a tight inner circular route, is also followed by the New York JFK Airport AirTrain system. The inner loop generally runs tandem two car trains while the outer loops only run with single cars. Each car can carry over 90 passengers.

The Metromover car maintenance base, unusual for a maintenance yard, is a building located downtown, at SW 1st Ave and SW 1st St, which lies between Government Center and 3rd St stations on the outer counterclockwise loop, at the point where the two loops split to run in adjacent parallel streets.

All loops run from 5 am to midnight, seven days a week. This schedule is adjusted during events. Trains on the Inner Loop run in tandem and arrive every 90 seconds during rush hours and every three minutes otherwise. Outer Loop trains arrive every 5 to 6 minutes; every 2.5 to 3 minutes where the track is shared.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.