Miami-Dade plans metromover route to Miami Beach within potential $3.6B transit plan

Miami-Dade has mapped out the six corridors of its Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) plan, per Miami Today, with a potential cost of up to $3.6 billion.

While the funding sources haven’t been sorted out yet, among the plan’s highlights is an elevated Metromover along 3.3 miles of the MacArthur Causeway, connecting Museum Park Station in downtown Miami to a new station at Fifth Street and Alton Road in Miami Beach.

Other components include five at-grade routes, which would obviously be more cost effective but detrimental to an increasingly congested traffic flow:

• A 10-mile at-grade route from east to west, partially elevated Metrorail extension along 836 from the Miami Intermodal Center to Florida International University
• A 10-mile at-grade Metrorail along Kendall Drive from the Turnpike to the Dadeland North Metrorail Station
• A 9.5-mile at-grade Metrorail extension along Northwest 27th Avenue from 215th Street to the Martin Luther King Jr. Metrorail Station
• A 14-mile, at-grade commuter rail in the Florida East Coast Railway corridor from downtown Miami to Aventura using existing tracks
• A 20-mile at-grade Metrorail extension along the existing transitway

As for funding, it depends on the pace of construction, with the fast track (two to six years) estimated to cost $3.6 billion and the slow track (progressing as cash flow allows) costing $1.9 billion.

Meanwhile, Miami Beach’s light rail project had been put on pause, with residents expressing concerns for the rail along Washington Avenue while the Miami Beach City Commission decided to wait for a commitment from Miami-Dade to connect the mainland to the beach before moving forward.

That key route, whether its light rail or Metromover, has to be one of the most pressing issues for Miami public transit among residents’ minds.

Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit plan firmed up [Miami Today]