Bad Friday for Metrorail. Trains slow, skip stops and halt airport runs in rush hour

Metrorail passengers were furious Friday after the county-funded rail system suffered significant delays and service disruptions during the afternoon rush hour.

The transit agency announced technical difficulties in a Twitter post at 4:41 p.m., while passengers posted their own real-time updates of overflowing stations, missing trains and disrupted commutes.

Transit said the disruption came from the “loss of our fiber network,” the system that connects some computers and other equipment throughout the system. That prompted engineers to operate some systems manually, according to the agency.

“It interferes with our ability to control switches” on the tracks, transit spokeswoman Karla Damian said Friday night. “We have to operate manually and reduce train speed for safety reasons.”

Richard Hankins, a transit advocate trying to head south from Miami, reported “Metrorail madness” shortly after 5 p.m., posting photos of passengers crowding the platform at the Government Center station as a train filled to capacity was stopped but unable to take on more riders. A digital sign showed the next two northbound trains delayed, and the next southbound train scheduled to arrive in seven minutes.

Once he boarded his southbound train about 50 minutes later, he reported it skipped three stops.

Metrorail said it was able to get trains running after the fiber-optics issue, but at a much slower speed than normal.

The problems prompted Miami-Dade to shut down Metrorail’s service to Miami International Airport, the lone new route built with a half-percent sales tax voters approved in 2002 to improve transportation countywide. Shuttle buses were used to ferry passengers back and forth from MIA and the Earlington Heights station, the two stops on Metrorail’s “Orange Line.” (The rest of the system is the “Green Line.”)

Metrorail has been plagued by delays and mechanical disruptions thanks to breakdowns of its original trains, which were part of the system launched during the 1980s. Miami-Dade is in the process of replacing the old trains with new ones as part of a $380 million upgrade of the Metrorail fleet.

The county’s 2019 budget shows transit reports needing $250 million to upgrade “Metrorail train control,” but there were not funds to meet the need.

This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 7:23 PM.