The Metromover is an unrestricted mass transit train system which operates in Downtown Miami, Florida in the United States. Miami Dade Transit operates the automated train which serves Brickell, Downtown Miami, Omni and Park West neighbourhoods. It directly connects Metrorail at Brickell stations and at Government Center.
The main purpose of the Metromover is to serve as an easy and fast way to commute within the larger Downtown Miami environs. Three loops and 21 stations make up the whole system. The location of the stations is roughly two blocks apart with all main places and buildings in Downtown are nearly connected by the system. The Metromover plays a vital role in the daily life of Downtown, the rapid increase of the population of the Downtown as seen both the popularity and usage of the train increase rapidly in the recent past. The ridership particularly in the past decade has almost doubled having risen from 14,952 commuters per day during 1999 to 31,100 at the end of October 2011. Of the three people, movers that operate downtown in the United States; Detroit People Mover and Jacksonville Skyway, Metromover takes the credit of being the most successful and is considered to be responsible for the rapid development in downtown (Martin, 1992).
History
During the year 1987, the people mover system which by then, was one year old broke the daily record ridership by reaching a high of 33,053 on one particular Saturday credited to new Bayside Marketplace. It was during that same year that plans were started to spread out the system to Omni and Brickell it was completed in 1994. The fare for Metromover before the approval of half a penny transit tax in November 2002 used to be 25 cents. It was necessary to lift the fare that was charged since the fare collection cost did not match the revenue collection arising from the fare and the realization that additional ridership would give rise to additional Metrorail ridership. The rapid increase in population, downtown development boom, rise in the gas prices and the free services saw the doubling of Metromover ridership to about 9 million in the year 2005 from 4.7 million in 2002. Nevertheless, ridership during the last half of the decade fell due to high unemployment and economic downtown. There was an increase in ridership by 2012 due to the increase in population and high gas prices. There was an increase in ridership of Metromover at the start of 2011 because of upsurge in the price of gas; however the Metrobus and Metrorail ridership and employment level decreased. When the Brickell and Omni extensions were initially planned, the estimation was by 2000 that the fared daily ridership will reach 43,000, a figure that the system is yet to reach (Miami Metro mover, 1987).Operation
Metromover has 21 accessible stations spread across Brickell and Downtown. The Metromover connects all of Brickell and Downtown’s major residential buildings, office buildings, retail centres and hotels. The major attractions like American Airlines Arena, Mary Brickell and Brickell Financial District are reached by Metromover.
Expansion
It was announced in May 2011 that there was a proposed study to analyse the plan of having the Port of Miami connected by the Metromover. This proposed expansion together with the MIA Mover and Metrorail will link directly the seaport and the airport. This study which will nearly take a year is just but a proposal that will need to be voted at the annual meeting to be effective.
Fleet
Metromover currently has a fleet of 17 Adorns C-100 vehicles in use. These are newer designs that replaced 12 C-100 models which were built Westinghouse Electric. They have modern features that include onboard CCTV system and aerodynamic design, as well as an onboard CCTV system.
Operating cost
The system building cost was approximately $153.3 million and the inner and outer loops operating budget in the year 2007 was $8,888,794. Ridership for the year 2007 was 8.7 million which brings the cost per ride to approximate of 1.02 dollar.
References
Completion of the Miami Metro mover: the local perspective (1987). Miami, Fla.? Metro-Dade Transit Agency.
Martin, F. T. (1992). Miami Metro mover system. Dade County, Fl.: Metro-Dade.
