page_title: Metromover
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Metromover / History
caption_attribution_description: Miami
context_page_description: Metromover is a free mass transit automated people mover train system operated by Miami-Dade Transit in Miami, Florida, United States. Metromover serves the Downtown Miami, Brickell, Park West and Arts & Entertainment District neighborhoods. Metromover connects directly with Metrorail at Government Center and Brickell stations. It also connects to Metrobus with dedicated bus loops at Government Center and Adrienne Arsht Center station. It originally began service to the Downtown/Inner Loop on April 17, 1986, and was later expanded with the Omni and Brickell Loop extensions on May 26, 1994.
  The Metromover serves primarily as an alternative way to travel within the greater Downtown Miami neighborhoods. The system is composed of three loops and 21 stations. The stations are located approximately two blocks away from each other, and connect near all major buildings and places in the Downtown area. Together with Metrorail, the system has seen steady ridership growth per annum, with an average combined ridership of 105,500 weekday passengers in 2013.
context_section_description: In 1987, the then-one-year-old people mover system set a record in daily ridership of 33,053 on a Saturday, attributed to the new Bayside Marketplace. That same year was when the planning began to extend the system to Brickell and Arts & Entertainment District (then Omni), which would not be completed until 1994. Until November 2002 when the half-penny transit tax was approved, the Metromover had a fare of 25 cents. The fare was lifted because it was realized that the cost of collecting the fare nearly exceeded the revenue generated from the fare, as well as the fact that more Metromover ridership would likely lead to more Metrorail ridership.  After becoming free, from 2002 to 2005, along with a large increase in population, rising gas prices and booming downtown development, Metromover ridership nearly doubled from 4.7 million in 2002 to about 9 million in 2005. However, ridership fell with the subsequent economic downturn and high unemployment in the latter half of the decade. By 2012, ridership had once again increased with downtown population, high gas prices and a recovering economy. In early 2011, Metromover saw an increase in ridership during a sharp peak in gas prices, at the same time as there was a decrease in Metrorail and Metrobus ridership as well as a decrease in employment. However, from January 2010 to January 2011, Metrorail saw a 7% increase in ridership, and both Metrorail and Metromover were expected to see additional ridership increases throughout 2011 due to rising fuel prices. When the Omni and Brickell extensions were first planned, it was estimated that ridership on the fared system would reach 43,000 daily by 2000, a number the now free system has yet to reach.
caption: An Adtranz C-100 Metromover train in its original livery
exif: {}