Metromover to Miami Beach is truly the Smart Program

The smart dumping of two years of failed negotiations to build a monorail across Biscayne Bay will serve us well.

First, the county returns to the starting line with the proper aim: extend existing transit to Miami Beach by linking to the downtown Metromover so riders don’t have to change stations or cars.

Second, the county dumps a tainted Baylink contract based on a deal that won commission OK days before an exhaustive ethics probe detailed an agreement born on a Hong Kong trip by the former mayor, some commissioners and staff using “burner” phones whose data vanished. It sounds unbelievable, but it’s true.

While numerous questions surround Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s announcement a week ago that the county would seek proposals to extend Metromover rather than let a private developer build, run and collect the revenues from a county-funded monorail, it was the smartest decision so far in the county’s so-called Smart Program to develop rapid transit.

It meets this column’s Oct. 27 plea that new transit connect to current modes and seamlessly flow in a single ride as far across the county as possible rather than patch in disconnected transit and force riders to shift seats over and over again. Critics of the monorail counted up to five transit changes to go from some areas to the airport.

The course correction erases our complaint that an Omni gambling casino planned by part of the development consortium was to be the monorail hub – a non-destination without a rider base or nearby employers. The developer counted on leveraging the monorail to win state approval for a casino it had put forth as the world’s largest.

The new plan also meets our call for transit linking Miami Beach to PortMiami, the world’s busiest cruise port, to make it easy for cruise passengers to extend vacations in our tourist mecca and to develop at least part of an east-west transit that has been our vital “missing link” forever.

The mayor wrote to commissioners that the monorail’s price tag had ballooned to $1.3 billion, with capital costs an astounding 221% above what developers had cited to win the exclusive negotiation rights. Talk about bait and switch!

County staff found price hikes from the 2020 agreement to negotiate included 435% for systems, 381% for a vehicle maintenance storage facility, 170% in vehicle costs, and 56% for professional services.

The developer wouldn’t budge when the county sought a price cut, a county memo says, but instead offered a 20% discount to switch to cable cars from its bait of monorail. The county found the cable technology “outdated” and rejected it.

During talks, documents say, county staff rejected the developers’ ploy to switch to uncovered walkways to link transit modes, reduce elevators and escalators for riders, add substantial distance between transit platforms, and remove a downtown station mezzanine, an omission that “would have impacted passenger flow.”

Incredibly, the report says, the developer “failed to provide any design or technical provisions for the monorail vehicles, despite multiple requests from the county.” Talk about buying a pig in a poke!

Getting rid of this hole-riddled, costly deal that never should have been was clearly a blessing.

But the mayor’s shift to Metromover does raise major questions.

She and staff state the aim is a single ride from any Metromover station to Miami Beach. But where on Miami Beach? The rejected plan was to end monorail near the MacArthur Causeway. Could Metromover extend north to the Miami Beach Convention Center, or farther? It makes sense, but does it make dollars?

Next, what about fares? Metromover has been free, but will a Baylink ride be also? If not, how will the system handle free passengers from, say, Brickell who want to go on to the Beach? It could be all free or all paid rides on Metromover – or by digital fare collections that should be easy when the first cars roll to Miami Beach, now scheduled for 2029. What are initial plans?

Third, the mayor touts single-seat rides, but Metromover is mostly standing. Is the aim to rebuild transit cars, add new ones with full seating, or make single-seat rides become standing rides? Certainly more (and updated) Metromover cars will be needed.

Then comes PortMiami: new Metromover from the Beach will be welcome there, but a walk from the current Metromover station is too long. Will the mover loop through the port or will they add a transit change that is no longer single seat into the port?

Metromover lacks drivers. It’s four miles to Miami Beach from downtown and adding attendants might be advisable.

Another logical addition is Metromover on the east side of Brickell, where residences and offices could bulk up riders on the new system. The mayor’s memo notes that the new transit corridor is supposed to eventually run Metromover to the Design District, further lengthening single-seat opportunities.

Many questions will be answered when the county requests proposals for the vital Baylink. Firmer answers will come when private proposals arrive – will Metromover really cost less than monorail, and can the county ultimately pay the bill?

One thing certain: commissioners elected this week will have plenty to debate in less than a year, which is when the mayor says they will be handed a Baylink contract – the one they should have received in the first place.