Miami-Dade Again Breaks Promise for Expanded Metrorail

Miami-Dade County officials knew that they didn’t have the funding to embark on a historic expansion of Miami-Dade Transit’s Metrorail System.

Kareem Gantt
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read
Miami-Dade Transit’s Metroreail system. Credit: aedistrictmiami.com

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez knew from the beginning that expanding Miami-Dade Transit’s beleaguered Metrorail system would be a long-shot at best.

Why? Because the County simply doesn’t have the money to embark on such a historic expansion. That wasn’t what was sold to voters back in 2002 when taxpayers voted to raise Miami-Dade’s sales tax a half-percent to pay for an expanded and refreshed Miami-Dade Transit, Florida’s largest public transportation system.

Granted, some of the promises in that now regrettable vote have made its way into fruition, such as subsidizing rides for senior citizens and making the Metromover free for all; but the meat-and-potatoes of the plan, expanding Metrorail and Metrobus routes, have continuly fallen by the wayside as Transit officials have used the money to prop up the existing system.

So with Transit riders angry and frustrated over a system that continues to erode every day in system breakdowns and outdated technology, Gimenez began to tout a proposal that would finally adhere to the promise the County made to Transit riders and voters those many years ago.

Dubbed the Stratigic Miami Area Rapid Transit Plan, or “SMART Plan,” the plan was to finally deliver on the ill-fated Metrorail expansion that was central to the 2002 referendum. Released by Gimenez last year, the SMART Plan was touted as a re-boot of the Metrorail expansion plans that were seemingly put on hold forever as the agency dealt with a backlog of issues using money from the transit tax.

On July 18, Gimenez made the admission that we all knew — that the County didn’t have to funds to embark on an expansion of Metrorail.

“I look at this as part of my job,” he told Douglas Hanks of the Miami Herald. “ Be realistic, bring us down to earth.”

In Metrorail’s place, Gimenez has proposed spending $534 million to beef up bus-rapid transit, focusing on creating a system of BRT routes that will move riders across Miami-Dade County as quickly as possible. With the move to bus-rapid transit, the plan to expand Metrorail seems all but over for now.

That plan should have died the moment it was released.

With falling ridership and property-taxes, the main funding agent for Transit, remaining flat for 2018, there was no-way that the County was going to pony up the money needed to expand Metrorail.

It was a promise that the Gimenez administration should have stayed away from. Heck, Miami-Dade should have stayed away from that promise 15-years ago, as everyone should have known that the transit tax would not go to “new projects,” as the ballot question promised.

Adding to the SMART Plan’s woes are service cuts that will be on their way to Transit next year. Under Gimenez’s 2018 budget, the existing Metrorail system, which just recently seen its service hours cut, will face even more cuts, and the Metrobus system will suffer from service cuts as well.

So with Transit in such a shaky finacial situation, why would anybody think that County would have the funds to embark on the SMART Plan?

Don’t get me wrong, it would be a great idea to expand Metrorail throughout Miami-Dade County as it will help reduce the County’s horrific traffic congestion; but the money simply isn’t there right now. It was never there, not in 2002, and certainly not in 2017.

As expected, there is pushback with the County’s retreat to bus-rapid transit. Government officials and residents across Miami-Dade are now accusing the County of once again serving up false hope to Transit riders. They are doing that, in fact, they have been reneging on their promise to fix Transit for the past 15 years.

The people want Metrorail expansion, not an expansion of bus-rapid transit; but while residents may not get rail, BRT will have to do, and the sudden shift to buses instead of rail repersents more broken promises from the County on finally rebuilding Transit.

So, since Mayor Gimenez and Miami-Dade County government officials doesn’t have the heart to tell beyond fustrated Transit riders the hard truth, I’ll do it for them:

Don’t expect Metrorail expansion anytime soon, Miami.

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Kareem Gantt

Written by

Award-Winning Writer, Floridian, Music Reviewer and Journalist, Sports Columnist, Political and Social Columnist.

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