prolix

Neither, really. Most people just see it as impractical. The county's population is about 2.50M, but only about 60k people ride the Metrorail each day. Much of this is due to the track mostly running alongside US1, essentially avoiding the western suburbs (which developed considerably through the late 70s up to the early 00s; Miami grew "out" instead of "up"). Metrorail ridership is actually operating at an all-time high right now, in part because of the realization of a "truer" urban core (more people living in Brickell, Midtown and downtown thanks to the 2000s condo boom) and in part because of the prohibitive cost of vehicle ownership for the working class. (Oh, and because of all of the UM kids taking the train to the ULTRA Festival every year.)

Tough to see it ever changing, imo, since no one wants the train to run through their suburb (it's a real NIMBY situation).

MileHigh

I plan on trying this out Sunday and will report results.

wvactions

Flying through MIA next month. Looks like the flight from DFW-MIA on AA is normally arriving in the D concourse and my next flight MIA-AUA is departing from the E Concourse. It is hard to tell on the map if you can get from D to E without exiting security. Anyone know if that is possible with the new design. Also only have 50 minutes for that connection, seems to be a tight connection with terminal change.

serfty

There is an airside connector - see map in OP - it's a thin line.

From near D31 to the 'trunk' of E - nearest gates are E2/E4/E5.

jtw_mia

The new Concourse D FIS opens today (July 31). According to the Miami Herald the old Concourse E FIS will be closing and may possibly reopen, not clear when...
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/3...ls-center.html

mrtrickdk

I just went through this nightmare today - total chaos...

• Some bags took 1 1/2 hours to get delivered.
• Immigration itself took close to 2 hours.
• Line stretching out the door.
• Many booths were not staffed
• Systems were down several times for immigration officers

Not a good start. Too bad they closed the E terminal's facility - they should have gradually moved over to the new facility to do some tests before.

supergrandslam

I went thru it at the evening on Aug 1st as a Visitor(i.e. non US citizen) and was a bit disappointed as well.

Note: #s(# of booths and those assignment, # of carousel) below may not be exactly accurate.

• It took 8 min from the gate(D45) to the immigration area by riding on another Skytrain.
  Taking a elevator may be better than taking a escalator to save time.

• Total # of booths is about 72
• Booth #52-#70 are for visitors, #71-#72 for crews
• Saw booth #51 for US citizens, so I guess booth #1-#51 are for US citizens(some of them may be for diplomats)

• When I arrived at the immigration, there was a long waiting line(The line was stretching from booth #51 to #70 with 2 turns(thus 3 rows) + 5-6 people in front of each booth.)
• 80% or more booths were in operation.
• It took 35min to clear the immigration.I think I got lucky as there was no one waiting in front of me after I was assigned the booth.If there were some people waiting,it might take another 15-20min.

• Total # of carousel is 10
• I was surprised to find my baggages not delivered yet(about 45min after deplane)
• My baggages were delivered after about 55min from deplane.
• Clearing customs was smooth, there was a few short lines.Took a few min.

So far, I rate new MIA FIS is better than ORD but worse than DFW.

I recommend minimum 2 hour layover for non US citizens connecting at MIA.

wrp96

I went through the new facility yesterday and was pleased. It took me less than 5 minutes to go through immigration - note though that I'm a US citizen. The visitors line was long but they had every station open over there - they only had 4 lines open for US citizens. Customs I waited maybe two minutes. The slowest part for me (other than getting to immigration) was luggage. Bags started coming off the belt within 5 minutes of arriving at the luggage claim area but even though it was tagged priority, one of my bags took a while to come (the other two were among the first off). Original connection was 2.5 hours but flight was delayed over an hour and still managed to make it. Even those in our group with a 2 hour connection managed to make it to their flight - but we were all US citizens.