Metrobus (Miami-Dade County)

The Metrobus network is a bus system in Miami-Dade County, Florida, operated by Miami-Dade Transit. It consists of 95 routes connecting most points in the county and part of southern Broward County as well. As of 2025, the system has 56,482,500 rides per year, or about 178,000 per day in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Seven routes operate around the clock: Routes 3, 11, 27, 77, 79 (No 24-hour service to Hialeah, all trips terminate at Northside Station), 100 and 602. Routes 246 Night Owl & Route 500 Midnight Owl operate from midnight to 5am. Other routes operate from 4:30am to 1:30am. All Metrobuses are wheelchair accessible, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and equipped with Bicycle racks.

Bus route 301 (Dade-Monroe Express) extends into Monroe County, reaching Marathon, where a transfer is available to a Key West Transit bus proceeding further into the Keys. With the appropriate bus transfers, one can travel all the way from Key West to Sebastian entirely on public-transit buses. Metrobus has many connections to Metrorail and Metromover, also operated by Miami-Dade Transit, mainly in the city of Miami.

History

Bus ridership has reached as high as 293,000 daily, but is generally around a quarter million. It reached a high during the real estate bubble of the 2000s, then declined during the bad economy amid service cuts during the Great Recession, before rising again in the 2010s. From 2015 into 2016, bus ridership fell sharply, down to a low of 195,000 daily in June 2016, amid the lowest gas prices in over a decade, despite a locally strong economy and steady population gain. This during a time when much effort was going into enhancements, such as an air-conditioned bus shelter, mobile ticketing, and new rolling stock, including electric buses. Part of the problem is that buses, unlike other transit alternatives, are not exempt from the increasing traffic present. Nationally, bus ridership fell while rail ridership increased slightly in 2015.

Routes

The system has 95 routes with 8,860 stations, some of which run 24 hours. The services are divided into categories of local, circulator, limited-stop (MAX), express, and Metro Express.

Route information effective as of October 27, 2025.

South Dade TransitWay

The South Dade TransitWay (originally named the South Miami-Dade Busway) is a bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor, or busway, serving southern Miami-Dade County, Florida, running approximately 20 miles (32 km) between Dadeland South Metrorail station and Southwest 344th Street in Florida City, parallel to U.S. Route 1 (South Dixie Highway) along a former Florida East Coast Railway right-of-way.

Service began on February 3, 1997, on an 8.3-mile (13.4 km) segment between the Dadeland South station of Metrorail and Southplace Mall (then known as Cutler Ridge Mall). The corridor was extended 5 miles (8 km) to Southwest 264th Street on April 24, 2005, followed by a final 6.5-mile (10.5 km) extension to Southwest 344th Street in Florida City on December 16, 2007. Between 2021 and 2025, the corridor was rebuilt with dedicated bus rapid transit stations and supporting infrastructure, supplementing the original busway stops.

Fares

Standard Metrobus fares are $2.25 and include transfers to Metrorail. Daily, weekly, and monthly passes are also available using an Easy Card or the Miami-Dade Transit app. Miami-Dade Transit introduced an open payment system to Metrorail on August 21, 2019, and Metrobus on December 23, 2019,[citation needed] allowing riders to pay with contactless bank cards and mobile payment (including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Fitbit Pay). As of the 2019 implementation of tap to pay, the Discover Card, via tap to pay, is not accepted systemwide.[citation needed]

Ridership

Ridership detail by average daily ridership on weekdays by month, with yearly average and highest ridership month in bold. Note the generally lower ridership during the summer months and December, month of the long Christmas and holiday season. Ridership has been falling since 2014 amid widespread rider complaints, an aging fleet, and sharply declining gas prices beginning in late 2014. Starting in 2016, this was also affecting Metrorail ridership. By 2016, 70% of the bus fleet was considered beyond its expected useful life, as the county was in the process of buying 30 electric buses with an option for 20 more. This is well under 10% of a fleet of nearly 1,000 buses. Other upgrades included a new mobile ticketing and contactless payment system, as well as upgrades to bus stops, including covering shelter-less bus stops and air conditioning at select locations. By mid 2016, average daily ridership was over 100,000 below a pre-recession peak in November 2007, and May, June, July, and August 2016 were the lowest ridership months in over a decade. Some of the ridership loss may be accounted for by overlap and growth of the free Miami Trolley and other pseudo-bus systems. Very poor numbers in October 2016 across the entire system were partially blamed on one day of closures for Hurricane Matthew, which passed close to South Florida. Similarly, September 2017, the month of Hurricane Irma, saw even lower ridership. 2016 was the lowest ridership year since online records began in 1998. Summer 2017 saw weekday ridership decline another 10% on top of sustained decline. January 2018's ridership of 162,300 is the lowest since at least the 90s with the exception of the month Hurricane Irma hit.

See also

• List of Metrobus routes (Miami-Dade County)
• Transportation in South Florida

External links

• Media related to Metrobus (Miami-Dade County) at Wikimedia Commons