SEE IT! Inside the Transit Crisis in Miami

Train to nowhere? Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.
Train to nowhere? Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Transit in Miami is in shambles. Bus service is increasingly slow and unreliable and bus ridership is plunging in response. Transit officials came barely track their own service — including numerous missed train runs per day.

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County officials endlessly debate where to build expensive new rail lines, with barely a nod to the transit system’s obvious problems.

Enter Transit Alliance Miami. In just two years, the organization has developed data to illustrate the depth of Miami-Dade’s transit crisis and has started to develop an agenda to take the region forward. It begins with reversing the decline in today’s bus system, not with billions for new rail lines that would be delivered to an inept operation.

If Miami can fix its transportation institutions and really deliver on the service it already offers, the foundation for future transit expansion will be far more secure.

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