Bus route cuts in July to save county $2 million

Miami-Dade’s bus network faces big changes in late July that will save the county more than $2 million a year by cutting out one route and making trips half as often on three others.

While these changes depend on county commission approval, other unspecified route changes are coming elsewhere in the bus system, which lost 8.2% of its riders in the past fiscal year.

Such changes in network routes and frequencies are allowed only a few times a year. The changes now on tap would take effect July 20.

The entire bus system was realigned as the Better Bus Network in November 2023 to serve the largest number of users with more-frequent trips and to cut out little-used transit. Ridership boomed after that, though revenues didn’t. Weekday bus system ridership rose 5%, with Saturday use up 12% and Sunday riders rising 8%.

The makeover shrank the number of bus routes available from 92 to 69 and cut weekday route miles 17%, from 1,175 to 975. It also increased the distance between bus stops, allowing buses to move faster along their routes, and increased the frequency of buses running on routes, reducing wait times at bus stops.

Historically, Metrobus ridership had been falling for a decade before rising in fiscal year 2023, just before the Better Bus Network was initiated, county transportation department records show.

Past clusters of route changes have tweaked the Better Bus Network.

Those due for a vote this week by the county’s Transportation Committee would eliminate Route 132 going to the Hialeah Market Tri-Rail due to low use, which averages 46 rides a day. County standards say routes carrying fewer than 15 people an hour are elimination candidates; this route carries seven per hour. Cutting out the route would save the county $210,000 yearly.

Another change would collectively extend routes 8 and 24 to serve more areas of Coral Way west of 107th Avenue to the Tamiami Station Park-and-Ride but go to hourly service from the present 30-minute wait between buses. A community meeting in Westchester to discuss the changes was attended by two members of the public and got positive feedback, commissioners were told in a memo.

Meanwhile, Route 37 would shift from its present 15-minute wait between buses to 30 minutes weekdays for travel between the Airport Station and Douglas Road Station. The route was upgraded to 15-minute service by the Better Bus Network makeover but doesn’t justify it with fewer than 10 passengers a trip, commissioners were told.

The bus system’s loss to 81.2 million rides last year followed three consecutive years of gains that included 50% in fiscal 2023 that the transportation department noted at the time were largely due to a shift from using farebox revenues to automatic passenger counters to tally ridership. Those counters not only tally riders who manage to avoid paying but also people who might step onto a bus, ask a question and then step off without riding at all.

Public acceptance of the Better Bus Network at the outset was mixed as many riders said the network – which placed stops farther apart and cut out routes that hadn’t been used heavily in order to speed service on heavily trafficked routes – had left them less able to reach jobs.

The county subsequently tinkered with the system to smooth over gaps after commissioners called for a detailed route-by-route report card on results of the bus network. That tinkering continues with the proposed July changes.