Miami Metrorail ‘Tokyo Style Packed’

Miami’s Metrorail is both heavily crowded and delayed, according to a Tweet from a rider this morning.

Twitter user Javi Contreras wrote that Metrorail was suffering from a “broken lights issue,” a 40 minute delay, and was “Tokyo style packed.”

A photo showed passengers crammed into the aisle of the train.

Miami-Dade County has only released Metrorail ridership statistics through September 2022.

The delayed data shows passenger counts still below pre-pandemic levels, but rebounding significantly.

Miami-Dade commissioners are now moving to expand Metrorail for the first time in over a decade, with expedited construction of a new line to Hard Rock Stadium in the planning stages.

 

 

 

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Bandit
4 months ago

I ride the public transit in Miami often. Buses are always full, metrorail and metro mover as well. There is always just something wrong, NFC readers not working, lines halted, things being 10+ minutes delayed, downed escalators and elevators. People use transit in spite of all these reasons, now imagine if it actually worked well.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Couldn’t have said it better. The constantly broken escalators are infuriating.

Checo
4 months ago

Mitch Hedberg said, “It must be nice being an escalator, because you are never broken, you just turn into stairs”.

Somehow the geniuses at Miami Dade county block off the “stairs” with those dopey yellow barricades. YES. That is infuriating.

anonymous
4 months ago

That and Miami International Airport. I travel a ton for business and airport escalators and automatic walkways are constantly being repaired. You would think an airport as busy as hours would be better maintained.

New Anonymous
4 months ago

I think the only thing going for the Metrorail in terms of quality is the cleanliness inside. Everything else needs to be improved.

Kendall boy
4 months ago

I totally agree, when I first started riding transit in Miami, it was the 104 bus in Southwest Dade, and for a bus that at that time headways hourly off-peak and half-hourly peak I always remarked that the bus was either reasonably full or packed to the gills full.

Transit Victim
4 months ago

I ride the rail daily from the Okeechobee Station. Long wait times to and from Govt Center to Okee and beyond are the norm as Transit halved the train rides due to the Orange Line to MIA within the north lines of the Metrorail. Regular delays for untold reasons are frustrating.

Anon
4 months ago

We have zero leadership

Checo
4 months ago

True.

Anonymous
4 months ago

The Mover has been absolutely packed lately, too. I can’t be the only one who thinks they need to add double cars on the Omni and Brickell loops instead of just the Inner loop, right?

Hilarious!
4 months ago

I’m just wondering where is the poster who’s always calling the Metromover a useless “Tin Can” now?

Anon
4 months ago

He’s stuck in traffic.

Hilarious!
4 months ago

In his little tin can Toyota Carolla…

Anonymous
4 months ago

Right here, and you prove my point those tin cans don’t have the capacity to accommodate any extensions unless the system is rebuild for longer cars, at least three a train.

Anonymous
4 months ago

That expansion work is supposed to be completed by May of 2025. Though given how delayed all our transit projects have been I am not hopeful that it get’s completed by then.

Juan
4 months ago

I agree with making them longer but the beauty of the mover is that the carriages come fast and frequent. Few modes of public transit do that consistently.

ParkingHater
4 months ago

They’ve been doing track work to allow more and newer cars. More capacity is coming soon (soon being miami soon not actual soon)

Anonymous
4 months ago

Well those new beer cans better be tallboys.

Anon
4 months ago

They need double and triple cars – especially if they are expanding to the beach.

Nea
4 months ago

They must not having anyone making decisions that rides and knows what it’s like. The system could work so much better.

Anonymous
4 months ago

If we want to become the big city we claim to want to be, we must have top notch public transportation that isn’t buses and that isn’t 10 different means of transportation.

anonymous
4 months ago

really its the county as a whole. There has to be a major improvement to get people to the center and then back out to the suburban areas. Every major city like Chicago, NYC, Madrid, Barcelona, London etc all have train systems that can get large quantities of people around a large area fairly quickly

Anon
4 months ago

Right. This is a regional and county problem.

Anonymous
4 months ago

As if all those cities also don’t have buses and different gauges of heavy and light rail.

ParkingHater
4 months ago

Buses are great, just with high quality stops, traffic signal priority, and under 20 minute service on even the low priority routes with up to 5 minute service on peak routes.

Which we don’t have lol.

NYC Transplant
4 months ago

There’s no priority that will help when a bridge goes up. There’s a reason the trolleys and buses get bunched up. Rail doesn’t have to deal with traffic congestion.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Make the buses electric on a fixed overhead wire system. It instills permanence and more development will ensue along routes.

NYC Transplant
4 months ago

Buses won’t cut it. Having moved here from NYC and having also lived in DC and Chicago, the width and number of lanes on major thoroughfares here in Miami is a real issue. I honestly don’t know if there is any solution at all. The avenues in Manhattan are much wider, as are major thoroughfares in Chicago. I can see the day coming when street parking will need to be eliminated in Brickell (at least) to increase throughput.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Buses usually take the outermost lane.

Metro-Rich Miami
4 months ago

We need critical improvements to our metros, and it’s not only about adding metro stations. It’s primarily about adding trains, enhancing the quality of our existing stations, and improving roadway and pedestrian infrastructure in neighborhoods around metros (making these top priority development zones) to incentivize new development and relocation of residents to these areas.

Anonymous
4 months ago

I agree but I also think we need to add more metro rail stops. The car dependency of this city is becoming very annoying.

Expand the Metro Rail and Mover
4 months ago

more public transit will have a snowball effect. Bring the SMART plan forward now.

Anonymous
4 months ago

The SMART plan was not so smart. Build and enhance infrastructure around existing metro stops to bring riders closer to the core and ensure Miami hub can fully grow and improve.

Choo Choo
4 months ago

would’ve been a great plan if they were all metrorail/metromover

milkshop
4 months ago

this would mean “working class folks” would have to get affordable housing in the urban core to work all the cvs,starbucks,puublix,wholefoods,bayside,restaurants,bars,etc to serve the elites…will the elites want this????? or just the tax break for building supposed “affordable housing”

Anonymous
4 months ago

Sure working folks are good people. Listen I’ve seen mostly rich people throwing garbage and leaving it. What matters more is having a beautiful functioning community and less traffic.

Um....
4 months ago

“I’ve seen mostly rich people throwing garbage”

So, how do you know they’re rich?

Miami Housewife
4 months ago

Money can’t buy you class, but it can upgrade the streets and sidewalks, drop the electric poles and enhance the parks.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Also overtown is so underdeveloped and in the core along a metro, we can build more affordable housing here mixed with luxury housing and cool spots like they did in Wynnwood.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Um, the affordable housing would be at the stops going into the urban core.

Anonymous
4 months ago

The “smart” plan has buses on it…why not horse carriages then😩

Anon
4 months ago

The “smart” plan calls for bus stations placed in the middle of i395 as the solution for the East West corridor…..

Daniel
4 months ago

Metrorail is embarassing, Mayor Danielle needs to get on it ASAp

Anon
4 months ago

It is. And it’s ONE LINE lmfao

Don't laugh
4 months ago

Before the Metrorail, and Metromover, Miami had nothing but buses to get you from point A to point B.

Step it Up Mayor 2
4 months ago

She’s busy opening bright lines for shopping malls in Aventura, haven’t seen her in the Miami hub in awhile…

Not Anonymous
4 months ago

She actually vetoed that resolution, but the commissioners passed it anyway.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Good luck with that. She’s busy increasing the urban growth boundary.

Why do we have two “mayors”
4 months ago

She’s increasing the urban congestion and traffic and trying to give herself some basis for her job. Why do we have two mayors and no single rep for Brickell?

Um....
4 months ago

The city of Miami only has one Mayor. The county of MiamiDade (which the city of Miami is in) has a Mayor also.

Only in Miami-Dade
4 months ago

Only in Miami-Dade do we have two mayors and no public riverfront (yet). Go figure!

BDub
4 months ago

Extending Metrorail (vs Mover) to the beach is a no-brainer.
Which means it won’t happen.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Miami Beach isn’t even in Miami. Let it be it’s own separate vacation spot. Miami isn’t dependent on Miami Beach or vice versa… there’s so many spots along the existing Metro that more urgently need development and improvements.

Metro Rich Miami
4 months ago

A metro will not increase patrons in Miami and Miami Beach and has relatively low value compared to what value could be added by enhancing existing metro zones.

Anon
4 months ago

“A metro will not increase patrons in Miami” “A metro…has relatively low value”

I can’t even believe I’m reading these sentences. What are you smoking?

Anonymous
4 months ago

Are you crazy?!? So miami and Miami Beach are super dependent on each other

Drac
4 months ago

Uh, Miami Beach is dependent on Miami’s airport to bring in most of their visitors and vacationers.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Which is why Metrorail makes more sense, because it serves Dade County as a whole, while Metromover is within the greater downtown area of the City of Miami…

What the?...
4 months ago

So you already know the actual faulty outcome even before a Metromover system is installed on Miami Beach?

Anonymous
4 months ago

So if Metromover is packed as it is, one can safely assume it’ll be madness between two major population centers.

MINDSET
4 months ago

Gee, I didn’t know that there is only ONE train car to ride in on the Metromover.

Well, like the old saying goes, “you live and you learn.”

Not Anonymous
4 months ago

I agree. if the Metrorail was extended to the beach, all the tourists could go directly from the airport instead of clogging up the Dolphin. Miami beach is one of the densest areas of the county, they deserve rapid transit.

Anonymous
4 months ago

I’ve never seen traffic going to Miami Beach. The most traffic is in north Miami and it’s because we keep developing high dense areas in spots that don’t have a metro when we should be zoning to crest luxury developments around the metros.

MIAJPN
4 months ago

I was on the metro this am & in Tokyo last month. I ride the metro about once a week & at different times/crowds of people. When I go on this am I thought this is like Tokyo. There are some big differences. In Tokyo at is packed all hours of the day. There are also many more train cars. I think the metro I was on had about 10 cars and in Tokyo I believe there is at least double.If the metro rail has the ability to add more cars, we could for sure fix the “packed” problem during peak travel hours. Tokyo/Japan is #1 in the world for quality of train travel. I think as Miami continues to grow & I am sure it will, we could learn quite a bit from Japan in this regard.

smoky and the bandit
4 months ago

the city council never learns….they need to be sent to cities where things actually “work” including the economies

nobody
4 months ago

“they need to be sent to cities where things actually “work” including the economies” how will they make money for their buddies’ construction and consulting companies like that?

Anonymous
4 months ago

Tokyo also doesn’t have a plurality of 3W inhabitants.

Anon
4 months ago

Any comparison of our metro to Tokyo’s is absurd.

Pleezzee
4 months ago

Plus, you can’t compare Miami to city with over13 million people.

Anonymous
4 months ago

And i-95 and other highways is New Delhi style packed. At least the public transit is getting used

memymo
4 months ago

Too bad we don’t have Tokyo styled public transportation. I went to Tokyo and Seoul back in 2019… and the subway/train systems in those two cities were simply the best. Why can’t we have great public transportation here in the US? At least in the major cities? NYC does have public transportation, but the infrastructure is just dirty and looks really old compared to Tokyo and Seoul. Both Tokyo and Seoul were just so futuristic and clean compared to any major US city I have visited. I wish our stupid and corrupt politicians would take a trip to East Asia, take a look at their cities, and try to recreate something like that here.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Rather than looking at Japan and Korea, our politicians would rather look at dirty China. I wonder why?

Frustrated with the stupidity with the rails
4 months ago

How about extending the lines west to as far as FIU where there is the most working population that could use a break from driving. Instead of extending rails in places of their money interest such as casinos. We need rails to extend all the way west and then down to Kendall. I’m tired of all the traffic driving from the west side to the gables or downtown make this a real city connect the dots for God sake!

Ex-Londoner resident in 33132
4 months ago

Constant daily problem on the free trolleys: deeply smelly homeless people. Drivers not allowed to bar them.

who cares
4 months ago

But it’s FREEEEEE!!!!..

Anonimato
4 months ago

What’s happening to the connection to Miami Beach ?! Voters voted on it in 2002. It’s criminal that it hasn’t started . Is there a secret society or mafia that keeps delaying it ?

Yet Another Anonymous
4 months ago

The Metro Rail is not packed. This is an anecdote based on a huge delay plus there has been wide service Cuts all across ridership is less than half of what it was and less than a quarter of what it should be.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Except Tokyo trains don’t suffer from a “broken lights issue” and are on time like an atomic clock.

Giumovesmiami
4 months ago

Less residential development.. more pubic transport development NOW
How are we supposed to welcome more people when our current method of transportation is be stuck in traffic for hours

wanderer34
4 months ago

Is it possible to expand the train sets from four cars to about eight to ten car train sets? Maybe that would alleviate the crowding.

anonyomous
4 months ago

During the pandemic, they went from trains running every 10 mins to now every 15 mins (and with delays, often worse in reality) during weekdays aka peak hours. They should be making the system MORE convenient and more reliable, rather than cutting services and packing everyone like sardines.

Nea
4 months ago

Why isn’t there trains going to the south area yet ? Instead they want to give us “rapid transit” but it looks like more busses. Trains instead of the busway to Florida City.

Checo
4 months ago

Yeah….I had to ride Spirit Airlines recently. It was packed too.
Delayed. Disgusting. Uncomfortable.

The Miami Dade Metrorail is better than Spirit Airlines.

I am not complaining.