• Nov. 16, 2008Residents unload anger at failing transit

  More than 600 people gave up a sunny Saturday to talk about the shortcomings of the local transit system in spite of a half-cent sales tax that was supposed to build new rail lines to every corner of the county.
  

• Nov. 14, 2008Officials admit transit tax failed

  Miami-Dade officials will publicly discuss how the 2002-approved transit tax failed to deliver its promises and what are the options left on the table.
  

• Sept. 3, 2008Transit fare hike may save bus routes

  County commissioners reluctantly raised fares to spare the existing bus system but failed to fill a $9.4 billion hole in the transit agency's budget.
  

• July 28, 2008North Metrorail plan sure to fail again

  Barring a highly unlikely miracle, the Metrorail North Corridor extension along Northwest 27th Avenue through the heart of the black community is as good as dead for at least another year.

• July 17, 2008Expansion at risk

  Miami-Dade's deficit-plagued Transit agency has new problems -- 9.4 billion of them -- that put the dream of expanding Metrorail at risk.

The hits keep coming for Miami-Dade Transit's beleaguered riders and the voters who supported a half-cent sales tax in 2002 with the promise of expanded rail and bus service.

Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Manager George Burgess are pushing for much deeper cuts in the upcoming fiscal year's budget.

After several years of right-sizing, and reducing more than 6 million miles of politically protected, underperforming "dog" routes, the transit agency is now being forced to make a lot of tough choices to cut another 4.1 million miles next year.

Unlike the low-ridership "dog" routes, many looming under the next wave of cuts carry substantial numbers of passengers.

The cuts would wreak havoc on the quality of service to major job centers, including hospitals, the airport and Seaport. Who will that hurt most? Third-shift blue collar workers, seniors, students and transit-dependent domestics trying to get to tonier addresses like Pinecrest and Coral Gables.

"These cuts, they're Draconian, man," said Wessell Clarke, president of Transport Workers Union Local 291, which represents the majority of transit's 3,200 employees. "It's not about [protecting union] jobs any more. It's about devastation to the community."

The union has gone on the offensive, passing out fliers in every corner of the county, urging riders to complain to their county commissioners. They also staged a mock funeral cortege through working-class neighborhoods, symbolically mourning the death of adequate bus service.

To get down to 28.1 million annual miles of service, the transit agency would have to cut 15 entire routes and eliminate weekend service on three others.

POSSIBLE CUTS

An internal Miami-Dade Transit spreadsheet obtained by The Miami Herald lays out the unvarnished impact of some of these proposed cuts. Thousands of riders would be facing longer hikes to reach alternative bus routes, longer waits between buses or no service at all.

A few excerpts:

Route 1: "1,800 boardings per day. Parts of South Miami Heights and Cutler Bay would have no alternative service."

Route 6: "1,100 boardings per day. High level of senior ridership. Removes service from NW 28/29 St. in Wynwood, Grapeland Heights, SW 32 Avenue and Bird Ave. in Coconut Grove."

Route 29: "1,200 boardings per day. High level of senior ridership in Hialeah. Eliminates [Miami-Dade Transit] service to Palmetto Hospital and W. 29 Street in Hialeah."

Route 42: "1,500 boardings per day. Discontinues LeJeune Rd. crosstown, portion of LeJeune in Hialeah and parts of Opa-locka would have no alternative service."

Route 48: "700 boardings per day. South Bayshore Drive and some streets in Coral Gables would have no alternative service. Also affects employees and visitors traveling to Mercy Hospital."

Route 56: "900 boardings per day. Eliminates transit service on Miller Road creating a two-mile gap in east-west service in west Dade. Eliminates service to Children's Hosp. and would also affect riders traveling to MDCC-Kendall, Univ. of Miami and Doctor's Hospital."

Route R: "500 boardings per day. Serves Alton Road residential areas with no alternative service. High senior ridership level. Affects access to Mt. Sinai Hospital."

Route 238: "700 boardings per day mostly work trips. Discontinues transit service to Blue Lagoon, MIA Cargo area, and NW 25 St. Removes direct connection from Earlington Heights Metrorail to MIA and Tri-Rail."

Route 246 (Night Owl): "500 boardings per day between 12 midnight and 6:00 a.m. No alternative overnight service for nearly half of the route which is on the mainland. (Alternative service on Miami Beach segment with Route S)."

The three routes that are facing the weekend ax -- 73, 75 and 91 -- would hurt riders in Hialeah and Miami Lakes and on the transit-dependent Northwest 175th Street corridor in Carol City and Norwood. It would leave large areas of Northwest Dade, west of 47th Avenue, without any weekend service at all.

If these proposed cuts are enacted, it will make life a lot more, uh, interesting on the downtown Metromover.

CROWDING EXPECTED

For years, the transit agency has been running dozens of buses into the downtown traffic grid, wasting fuel and duplicating service on routes that would stop at two of the three major bus terminals.

One of the cost-saving measures in the next round of cuts will force thousands of downtown-bound riders on Routes 8, 12, 16, 24, 51, 54 and 93 (The Biscayne MAX) to exit at either Brickell, the Omni or downtown bus terminals.

Everyone will be forced to use the Metromover to finish their trip. Transit insiders worry that "Metromover may have capacity issues," according to the internal draft memo.

The proposed cuts aren't final yet.

Commissioners, who have been swamped with complaints since the union started pamphleteering, will have the final say during next month's budget hearings. But they're also facing a proposed fare hike vote on Sept. 2, along with a bunch of politically unpopular decisions that would be required to fill a $9.4 billion, 30-year hole in the transit budget if they want to expand Metrorail to the north and west.

If commissioners ultimately side with Alvarez and Burgess, and force the transit agency to enact these cuts, the county will have reduced total bus miles close to the pre-sales tax levels of 2002. The bottom line would look like this: The tax still exists and bus service will remain virtually the same.