Skytrain (Miami International Airport)
The Skytrain is an automated people mover at Miami International Airport in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. One of three APMs at MIA, it operates within the airport's North Terminal and serves passengers in Concourse D, with four stations over a distance of. It uses Crystal Mover vehicles, which are fully-automated and travel along the roof of the terminal. The system has transported up to 40,000 passengers daily.
The Skytrain was built as part of an airport expansion project, which included the construction of a new mile-long terminal. Due to the building's length, the Skytrain was built to facilitate the transport of passengers and reduce walking times. Construction on the new terminal began in 2007 and Skytrain operations began in September 2010.
Due to extensive cracking detected in the system's infrastructure, Skytrain service was suspended for six months starting in September 2023. Three of the stations reopened in March 2024, and the full system resumed service in August 2025.
History
Planning and construction
In 1989, American Airlines made a decision to create an airline hub at MIA for its flights to the Caribbean and Latin America. A $6.3 billion capital improvement program was started in the 1990s to expand the facilities at MIA, which included the construction of a new passenger terminal to be used exclusively by American Airlines. Known as the North Terminal, the new facility would ultimately consolidate four of the airport's seven pier-finger concourses into a single mile-long linear concourse, which would allow for more daily aircraft operations per gate. To ease connections, an automated people mover was planned to transport passengers along the terminal's roof. It was designed with a level of service goal for domestic passengers to complete their connection within 30 minutes after entering the terminal. This would decrease walking distances by 70 percent for domestic connecting passengers and 40 percent for international connecting passengers, with 60 percent of all terminal passengers using the system daily. A contract was awarded in 1999 to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Sumitomo Corporation to design and build the APM rolling stock.The North Terminal project was originally managed by American Airlines; however, following a series of schedule delays and budget overruns, project management was transferred in 2005 to the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, the Miami-Dade County government agency that operates MIA. The trains were completed in Mihara, Japan the same year and remained there until the terminal infrastructure construction was complete. A storage area and [automated automated guideway transit|guideway transit|guideway] test track was constructed adjacent to the MHI manufacturing facilities in Mihara to exercise the trains' tires and electrical systems, and MDAD paid Sumitomo $54,000 per month to test the trains until they were ready for delivery.
Construction of the terminal was contracted to the joint venture of Parsons–Odebrecht and began in March 2007. The trains were shipped from Mihara and placed on the new guideway at MIA in June 2008. The first phase of the North Terminal opened to the public in November 2009; three Skytrain stations and approximately of train guideway was constructed at the time, and its completion was scheduled during the second construction phase the following year. Skytrain began operations on September 15, 2010, and the total cost of the system was $130 million.
The Skytrain was recognized in 2011 when MDAD received an "Award of Merit" for its construction from Engineering News-Record annual competition for best construction projects in the Southeastern United States. As part of MIA's art and exhibitions program, two site-specific art pieces were installed at Skytrain stations in 2012: Roberto Juarez' mural MIA Flower Fence is featured on a wall in the Station 1 mezzanine, and Paul Villinski's sculpture Air Chair hangs from the ceiling of the concourse outside the Station 2 entrance.
2023–2025 suspension and repairs
During an inspection in May 2023, extensive cracking was discovered in three of the concrete piers underneath Station 1, prompting an engineering investigation. The cracking had previously been identified during an inspection in 2021, but the issues were determined to be "minor" at the time. By early September 2023, engineers had discovered "accelerated deterioration" of the piers. Following the investigation, a county-contracted engineer ultimately recommended an immediate closure of the system, and the Skytrain was suspended indefinitely at the end of the day on September 15. To supplement the lack of train service, American Airlines increased golf cart shuttle service inside the concourse, and MIA operated a temporary shuttle bus service.After $4.2 million of emergency repairs, service resumed on March 29, 2024 between Stations 2, 3, and 4. Station 1 remained closed as its damage was more severe than the other stations and required "more extensive repair", which involved refilling the concrete in the damaged piers and wrapping the pier caps in a waterproof carbon-fiber membrane. Initially planned for mid-2024, the system resumed full operations following the reopening of Station 1 on August 29, 2025. The total cost of the structural repairs was $7.8 million.
Service
The Skytrain travels across Concourse D, the airside zone of the North Terminal, and serves arriving and departing passengers who have cleared airport security. The concourse is located on the second level of the terminal building and houses 50 gates, numbered D1 to D60. The Skytrain route runs for, beginning at Station 1 on the east side of the concourse near Gate D17, and travels west to Station 4 on the opposite end of the concourse near Gate D47. The two intermediate stations include Station 2, which connects to the exit to the landside terminal area and baggage claim, and Station 3, which connects to Concourse E in the Central Terminal. Station platforms are located on the fourth level of the terminal building and can be accessed via entrances throughout the concourse. Passengers arriving from international flights can access the Skytrain from the third floor to travel to passport control at Station 3; these passengers board and alight using a separate lobby on the east side of each station and travel exclusively in the vehicle on the east side of the train.| Station | Location | Connections | Coordinates |
| 1 | Near Gate D17 |
| |
| 2 | Near Gate D24 | ||
| 3 | Near Gate D30 | ||
| 4 | Near Gate D47 |
System configuration
Track infrastructure is entirely elevated along the roof of the North Terminal building, approximately above ground level, and is supported by over 100 concrete piers spaced apart. Trains travel along a double-track concrete fixed guideway with a track gauge of ; the entire system includes of guideway. Each station has an island platform layout above the guideway with platform screen doors. The system's maintenance and storage center, located to the south of Station 3, has four maintenance tracks and can store up to 18 cars.Rolling stock includes 20 automated Crystal Mover cars, which are configured into five trains with four cars each, including two fixed married-pair vehicles. The two separate vehicles in each train allow for secure transport of passengers arriving from international flights to the passport control facility. A single car is long and wide; it can accommodate up to 93 passengers, including eight seats and two spaces for wheelchairs, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Up to four trains are put into operation simultaneously, with at least one kept in standby. The trains use rubber tires and can accelerate at a rate of, with a maximum speed of. Service braking is performed by a combination of electronically controlled pneumatic brakes and regenerative braking, which can decelerate at in normal operations and at using emergency brakes. Trains are powered by a electrical system via power rails along the guideway sidewalls, which transmit power from two ground-level substations. Its protection system includes automatic train control with fixed block signaling. Plans to purchase two additional four-car trains were approved in 2022, and are scheduled to be implemented by early 2026.
As a medium-capacity rail system, the Skytrain can transport up to 9,000 passengers per hour per direction, and it served up to 40,000 passengers daily in 2015. It is one of three individual APMs at MIA, in addition to the Concourse E people mover and the MIA Mover. Since its opening in 2010, Skytrain operations and maintenance have been provided under contract by Crystal Mover Services Inc., a joint subsidiary of MHI and Sumitomo Corporation. MDAD renewed CMSI's contract in 2022 to continue O&M services for an additional five years.