Commissioners Contemplate $1 Metromover Fare
Dade’s Transportation and Aviation Committee delayed voting on a plan to begin collecting fares on the Metromover at a meeting last month. Not enough committee members were present, and a quorum could not be established.
The motion was approved on a first reading in September.
Metromover is currently free to ride, and it could take years to recover the costs of switching to a paid system. Installing fare-collection equipment could cost between $2.4 million and $9 million, depending on the level of security and method of fee collection. It will also cost about $525,000 every year for on-going fare collection operations.
If commissioners approve adding a $1 fee to ride Metromover, it could generate between $1.8 million and $2.7 million each year, county officials estimate. The revenue would go to other transit projects, including paying for free transportation for senior citizens.
(photo: ed webster/flickr)
You may also like...
Leave a Reply
37 Comments on "Commissioners Contemplate $1 Metromover Fare"
They need to realize that a $1 fare would result in a decent percentage loss of ridership. The metromover makes it very easy to get around downtown. Given the cost of installing and collecting fees for now I don’t think it is worth it. Along with losing ridership too. Also I would imagine they would implement some type of free transfer from metrorail to metromover.
Let it be. Unless the system is expanded it’s not worth it.
About time…generate money and prevent certain people riding for no other reason than the air con.
Exactly! I ride the metromover all the time and would not mind at all paying $1 each time. There are way too many people who just hang out in those trains for the A/C especially in the summer. If you cannot afford a few dollars, good! More space for those of us who can.
True but what if those that can afford or want to pay for it aren’t enough to pay for the installation of all of this? Once they make it paid, it probably will not get the same dollars it currently gets from government. Stations and trains will deteriorate and will not be maintained.
felt the same way but after a few months of not riding metromover i noticed that growing population in Brickell has itself taken care of those that were on it just for the AC. I guess summertime we will see if that holds true but I was surprised the other evening that I took it. It was nice to see actual residents of the area using it and the train was pretty full. If they start charging, i probably would take Free Trolley or walk so it might backfire on them. Other residents will simply use their cars instead or Car2Go. They should analyze this well before making this decision.
My kids and I use metro over because it’s free but if I have to pay for myself and my kids every time I want to use it then I won’t use it. A round trip would be eight dollars for my family and for that I will drive my car and pay to park as it would be cheaper. Get ready for more traffic downtowners!!!
Have fun sitting in the traffic and paying for parking.
and finding parking…
great point
They will probably have a monthly rate and cheaper fare for kids…
it should have never been free anyway
Agreed…never should have eliminated or neglected to maintain the fare-collection system. When I was young, growing up in and around Key Biscayne, Brickell and Downtown, I would cough up allowance money (the little I received) and pay to ride the MetroMover. Don’t see what the big deal is for young professional, adults and employed people to pony up some cash to help maintain these expensive trains.
Oh, yeah…I am sick of riding next to un-showered vagrants who yell at patrons because they don’t want to cough up money to fund abuse and beer drinking. Hire some more security and protect the County investment.
Finally, if only the developers would help pay for the expansion of transportation, specifically MetroRail, MetroMover and a potential rail line to Miami Beach.
I can only wish! Happy New Year.
I ride the Metromover every day, and I do not mind at all paying $1. Very often vagrants ride the Mover around and around, especially in the warm summer months. Hopefully charging money for access will help eliminate this problem.
In the summer it won’t. Those guys have $1 and they will just ride it around and around.
Miami-Dade needs to stop giving a free passes to seniors. The elderly population is rapidly increasing and giving free passes to them is one of the largest drains on the system.
The fee is reasonable. Three factors will lead to an increase in ridership in spite of the fare. 1)the increase in traffic congestion as a result of all the new residential buildings in the area, 2)the increase in ridership as a result of the elimination of undesirables (those riders who don’t use the system for transportation, but for the a/c), 3) Miami City Center.
Let’s be honest here…They’re not going to expand anything unless people start demanding it in a much more vocal way. People blocked 95 in protest of something that took place on the other side of the country and had nothing to do with daily life here
Remember how they keep increasing the metro-rail fares with empty promises that the additional revenue will go to improving/extending the system? It’s all about robbing whatever money they can from the taxpayers. Then when ridership inevitably goes down they’ll point their finger and say “HA, public transport will never work here, let’s build another another shitty highway so you can enjoy more bumper to bumper traffic every morning!”
Don’t stand for this. I don’t care how much you hate the homeless people and whatever scum that might currently get on the mover for free. A dollar clearly doesn’t stop them from getting on the public buses.
Bad idea
Wasn’t one of the selling points for the transportation half-cent tax that the Metromover would be free????
Yes it certainly was. After the half penny tax passed, the metromover fare was eliminated and it was probably the only promise kept. Now, in typical Miami fashion, the commissioners want to reneg on the deal. Not everyone has forgotten.
The half penney tax was passed because the people of MiamiDade were told it would go towards expanding Metrorail and Metromover, even someday into Miami Beach. The powers that be reneged and instead starting using the money to expand freeways and toll lanes as well as other road projects in the county.
at a reasonable interest rate for a loan covering that capital expenditure, with the highest cost listed ($9m), it would take 8 years to pay off the loan and costs. Miami is a teenager in a steady growth now, but along with that growth are some growing pains and we’ll have to endure that in order to elevate to a true metropolitan, urban environment.
Once something like this is in place and we understand the income stream, we can begin planning real transportation linking the different mainland neighborhoods to each other and the beaches in a meaningful way.
Let’s get grown up.
Ed and Jeanie – We need to have a real transport system. Driving and parking is costly of time and money. $1 is a welcome charge.
We approved a tax increase a few years ago, which in part made the Mover Free to use. Are we gonna get that tax increase back if you start charging again?
Are you talking about the increase of about 15 years ago?
A transit system should not be treated as some sort of welfare system where free rides should be handed out so discriminately. I believe one of the reasons transit is not expanded as quickly as it should be is for that reason, that is viewed mostly as a welfare-program instead of as an investment in the community. The elderly, veterans, and students who make up a huge group of transit riders should not ride free or at even reduced rates, 2 dollars is not much and raising fares to 2.65 for express routes and 2.25 for what are regularly late buses for everyone else sucks, no one should be given free-rides or cheap rides. I believe if we are a community we should suffer and benefit together, and I am glad that the metromover may get fares, but its almost as if you’re robbing peter to give to paul. This transit privilege thing should end.
libertarian cancer
Its a very small localized route & no drivers. Keep this free or make it .50 cents. Makes more sense to charge for the much larger trolly system that have drivers & are now all over the place. They should use part of the millions to add more cars & expand if they charge.
You mean those cockroach infested trolleys? They are disgusting. I’ve gotten on them a few times and some of those sat next to cockroaches crawling up the windows and walls. I’ve let drivers know but they don’t seem to care. I even have the trolley numbers for reference to know when I get on one!
So let me get this straight. People here are whining about paying $1, while others feel .50 c/ is ok? How cheap can you be? If a homeless person can afford $1 so can you! The metromover will soon connect Brickell with Miami World Center a brand new Macy’s and a Bloomindales. There is no way I want to drive through all that traffic and find parking just to avoid paying one measly buck!
Wow, you Miamans are a pretty callous and sheltered bunch. Homeless people riding transit? The horror! You’re all “look we’re so progressive bc we ride transit” and yet you think it should be exclusive territory for you to ferry your (probably insufferably snotty) kids to the Brickell mommy-and-me yoga classes. It’s called PUBLIC transit for a reason. Now, I’m not saying it shouldn’t cost money to ride and I agree with the other commenter that your unwashed masses will spend the $1 to ride, but you people represent the worst of the suburbs (or shiny new “suburbs in the sky”) with your attitudes that a fare system would be a good thing bc it would exclude people.
Signed,
A New Yorker that knows a thing or two about riding transit
Erik, it has nothing to do with being “snotty” or “callous.”
The Metromover needs to charge money because it is draining resources and capital from the County…tons of it due to maintenance, etc.
The MTA, on the other hand, probably rakes in millions…
Completely agree! I live in Brickell and I take the metromover whenever I can. Looking forward to taking it to the new Whole Foods that will be opening later this week too.
I live in Midtown, so the MetroMover exists to me as a concept I understand, but never utilize…kind of like algebra.
Yeah, I forgot about Whole Foods. I think they should have a monthly pass for locals where they can pay say $30 and ride unlimited.
IF they do decide to charge, that would be a good idea.
I think they should extend via N. Miami to Midtown and charge for using the service outside of the inner loop. They can control payments by charging at the exit.