First-of-its-kind bus center due a 2026 opening

The first bus operations center in the nation “built from the ground up specifically for electric buses” will be completed toward the end of this year, the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust was told last week.

After an electrical failure there, “We’re working with the contractor to kind of shorten the time frame to make those repairs that are required to get the facility operational,” Alex Barrios, assistant director of facilities for the county Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the trust.

The South Dade Transit Operations Center is means to support a new fleet of 100 electric zero-emission electric buses serving the Metro Express line on the South Dade Transitway. This is the first all-electric Bus Rapid Transit corridor of its kind in the nation and Miami’s first major transit garage in 40 years.

A groundbreaking was held in June 2024 on the 20-acre site at Southwest 127th Avenue and Biscayne Drive in Homestead.

The site includes rapid charging stations, maintenance bays, parts storage, driver training rooms, showers, lockers, a wellness center, administrative offices and a pedestrian bridge to parking. The facility can also serve as a command center during major storms or emergencies for Department of Transportation and Public Works operations.

Additionally, the site includes green features like a water reclamation system for a bus wash, solar power, climate-resilient infrastructure, native landscaping and energy-efficient design.

The $245 million operations center was scheduled in 2023 to be operational by March 2025. “The center will have offices for the Department of Transportation and Public Works’ revenue operations, Office of Training and Traffic Signals and Signs Division,” an August 2023 county resolution said. The transportation trust was told last week that the total project will be finished by Sept. 30, 2027.

“We’re now finishing the administration building, with all the finishes,” Mr. Barrios told the trust. “It is much more refined than your last visit there.”

“You guys moved really, really fast on that,” said trust member Robert Wolfarth.

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