South Dade Bus Rapid Transit 95% ready to roll

Written by Miami Today on July 9, 2025

About 95% of the construction for Bus Rapid Transit service along the South Dade Transitway is now complete as the service prepares to open sometime in late summer, the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works says.

The county has accepted from the contractors 13 of the 14 new rapid transit stations along the transitway’s 20-mile route linking the Dadeland South Metrorail Station and Homestead, Maria Perdomo of the department told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust.

Some of the transit stations have their fare gates in place so that passengers can’t jump them, she said, and 90% of the roadway intersections with the transitway have been fully integrated into the system with gate arms, pavement markings, and proper traffic signals.

Still needed to begin operations are some gate arms, traffic signals and safety and security procedures, she said, and the department is planning for some public outreach about the new Bus Rapid Transit [BRT] system so that people will “know how to use it as it opens.”

When it opens after four delays in the planned date so far, it will be the first corridor of the county’s Smart Program to go into use to expand rapid transit options. The six corridors of that program were announced in 2016. All but the transitway are still years from beginning construction.

“We have received all of the buses that are going to service the BRT,” Ms. Perdomo said. “Right now we have purchased 100 electric buses, and we’ve received [the] 42 of those [that] are going to be in service for the BRT.” In March, the county told the trust that only 17 of the buses had then arrived.

The new rapid transit service is to have all 14 of its new stations open when buses start rolling but not all of its new parking facilities, which are to be phased in along the route that was once the roadbed for Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway and in recent years has been a busway that has now been upgraded with the stations, parking, bicycle paths and a new roadbed capable of handling high-speed electric buses.

The new $368 million transitway is to carry two separate services, the express with limited stops along the way and an all-stop service that will not be rapid transit and will stop at 16 remaining stations from the old busway in addition to the 14 new stations.

The transit department, Ms. Perdomo said, has accepted all 16 local stations, with some minor improvements throughout.