Where did your bus stop go? Routes changing in Miami-Dade. What to know about the plan

Miami-Dade County Transit is reworking bus routes to reduce waiting time.

The Better Bus Network originally was proposed as shifting money from routes with fewer riders to ones where the buses are frequently crowded. Now the strategy is back to keeping the bus division’s budget mostly flat while focusing on route changes and other moves to make the Better Bus plan work.

KNOW MORE: Can Miami-Dade County finally streamline its public bus service, reduce waiting time?

The Better Bus plan increases distances between bus stops, adds some routes and deletes others.

Here are the highlights:

Notable changes in the Better Bus Network plan for Miami-Dade

▪ New names: Part of the redesign involves dropping route names tied to letters. Most county bus routes already have numbers for names, and the new plan eliminates the remaining letter titles and reworks some of the numerical names, too. So the 102 B bus running between mainland Miami and Key Biscayne shifts to the 26 Bus and the 120 S on Miami Beach becomes the 100 Bus.

▪ Express bus reduction: Before the pandemic, commuters looking for bus rides along I-95 had multiple options. But with working from home cutting into demand for those routes, Miami-Dade wants to pare back the options. The Better Bus plan permanently kills the already suspended Route 195 that runs from Broward County and scale back arrivals on the 95 Express running from the Golden Glades interchange from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. Tri-Rail is an alternative to the north-south bus lines, and that service should become more convenient with the planned opening of a downtown Miami station later this year.

▪ Faster routes: Key Biscayne passengers will see rush-hour arrivals increase from every 15 minutes to every 10 minutes under the plan. But the speedier route won’t have as many stops: The newly renamed 26 Bus drops the current run through the Harbor Drive neighborhood off the Rickenbacker Causeway. On the South Dade busway, the existing 31 Local route has more than a dozen stops between the South Dade Government Center and Dadeland South Metrorail station. It would be eliminated, and operator hours shifted to a revived 37 Express, a currently suspended route that used to run the same distance but with just four stops. Both routes are set for an early launch in July before most of the rest of the plan goes into effect this fall.

▪ More on-demand shuttles: The Better Bus plan also scraps the 82 bus, which runs through the Westchester suburb and picks up about 60 people on an average weekday, compared to more than 5,000 riders a day on some of the county’s busiest routes. With the 82 route less than a quarter mile from other bus routes, Miami-Dade is considering offering on-demand shuttle rides through Go Connect or a competitor. That service allows passengers to use their phones to hail a van for short rides within a limited service area at the same rate ($2.25) as a bus ticket. The 241 Bus, between mainland Miami and the Mount Sinai Medical Center on Miami Beach, also ends under the plan. Existing county service on the 110 Bus across the Julia Tuttle Causeway and Miami Beach’s free trolley service are listed as substitutes.

This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Where did your bus stop go? Routes changing in Miami-Dade. What to know about the plan."