Miami Beach launches new water taxi across the bay. Will it succeed this time?
Miami Beach has tried running water taxis to downtown Miami before.
A pilot program in 2017 failed due to low ridership. Similar concerns doomed the “Poseidon Ferry” in 2020 and 2022. When the Poseidon set sail again in 2024, persistent maintenance issues led to its swift demise.
But at the launch of a new, free water taxi service on Tuesday, city officials were bullish.
“This is a historic day for Miami Beach,” Mayor Steven Meiner said on a cool morning at the Maurice Gibb Memorial Park dock in Sunset Harbour with city officials, media and residents in attendance. “I literally have chills seeing that water taxi standing behind me.”
At 8:30 a.m., the 40-foot yellow boat with a capacity of 55 passengers set sail on its inaugural journey. It went off without a hitch, reaching the Venetian Marina and Yacht Club at 1635 N. Bayshore Drive in about 20 minutes. A return trip began at 9 a.m., arriving back at the Maurice Gibb dock around 9:20.
The boat will depart once per hour on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and every 30 minutes from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. when a second boat is utilized. The service won’t initially operate on weekends, as officials look to market it to commuters and not just tourists.
Meiner has long been a proponent of utilizing the city’s waterways for transit and to help alleviate persistent traffic problems. He called Tuesday’s launch “monumental,” saying he expects “incredible ridership.”
At some point, Meiner said, he expects expansion to include not only east-west service across Biscayne Bay to Miami but also north-south service within Miami Beach.
“This is just the initial wave of what we expect,” Meiner said.
Officials said several factors set this effort apart from past debacles.
The Poseidon Ferry owners were gifted a no-bid deal worth $600,000 in 2024, an arrangement that the city entered into “without conducting any formal due diligence on the company’s financial stability, operational capacity, or service history,” according to a December report by the Miami Beach Office of Inspector General.
This time around, the city conducted a competitive bidding process and selected Water Taxi of Miami Beach, LLC, an offshoot of a company that successfully operates a water taxi service in Fort Lauderdale.
The new water taxi will also be free to ride, which wasn’t always the case in the past. On the Poseidon Ferry, one-way fares were $12 for adults, while city residents and employees were charged $5 fares.
In addition, water taxis have been a popular option for tourists and residents during the past two years of Art Week, when traffic in the region reaches its peak. The Fort Lauderdale company ran the water taxi during Art Week last month.
“There’s an excitement in the air about this water taxi,” Meiner said.
READ MORE: Crew members of failed Miami Beach water taxi say they’re owed money. Where is the owner?
Miami Beach officials initially contemplated a seven-days-per-week, 12-hours-per day service but found that it would cost $2 million a year to operate. Instead, the city landed on the weekday option, expected to cost $1.2 million per year, covered by a $600,000 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation and an equal amount from city coffers.
Commissioner Alex Fernandez said Tuesday that the new water taxi can be “a true commuter service.”
“In a competitive process, it was shown that this was the best partner for Miami Beach to offer not a tourist service [but] to offer a free commuter service,” Fernandez said. “We know that this partner truly delivers because of their history of success already with Fort Lauderdale.”
Miami Beach officials have been less supportive of other transit alternatives, namely a proposed expansion to South Beach for the Metromover, a free elevated transit system that operates in downtown Miami and Brickell.
In 2024, Meiner and city commissioners passed a resolution opposing that plan amid fierce opposition from homeowners in the South of Fifth and West Avenue neighborhoods.
This story was originally published January 20, 2026 at 12:09 PM.
