MIA People Mover Derails, Two Hurt
MIAMI (CBS4) - The MIA Mover at Miami International Airport was shut down Sunday after a train derailed.
Twelve passengers were on board at the time. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue says two people suffered minor injuries.
The closure of the train forced hundreds of passengers on to shuttle buses for transport between the MIA terminal and the adjacent rental car center on LeJeune Road.
"We are running out of time," said Ricardo Acuna as he boarded a shuttle bus. "We really were not prepared for this delay."
The train went off the tracks Sunday morning, according to airport officials.
"The MIA Mover had some type of malfunction," said MIA spokesman Greg Chin. "So, right now we're investigating what happened."
While mechanics and engineers examined the train, passengers waited in long lines to board shuttle buses to and from the rental car center.
"We were supposed to get in the train in 5 minutes," said Luis Dyer. "Now it's been like half an hour, maybe more"
The MIA mover can typically transport 3,000 passengers an hour. Passengers had to resort to slower moving buses Sunday.
"For now that's working well," Chin said. "The lines are a little bit long, but we're managing and people are getting back and forth."
Jessica Glenn was waiting for a rental car to drive back to Tallahassee.
"We actually timed it," Glenn said. "It took 21 minutes from the end of the line to get on the bus."
Glenn, like several other passengers who spoke to CBS 4 News was in the dark about what happened.
"They just said it was down," Glenn said. "They didn't say it derailed or anything. That's really scary. Now I am a little scared to take the monorail."
The MIA Mover has been open for just under a year. It cost about $270 million to build, but is free of charge for passengers.
