BUSWAY MAX
Dadeland South Station to Prime Outlets at Florida City via Busway and US-1
(February 3, 1997-Present)
Route 38 Express
Dadeland North Station to Florida Keys Factory Shops via Turnpike and US-1
(November 28, 1988 - January 31, 1997)

Destination Signs:
Southbound:
BUSWAY MAX / FLORIDA CITY
38x  FLA CITY

Northbound:
BUSWAY MAX / METRORAIL
38x DADELAND

VITAL STATS:
Division: Coral Way
Service: MAX- base headway is every 30 minutes, rush-hours every 10-15 minutes. Weekends every 30 minutes. Operates from about 5 AM to almost 2 AM the next day. Route 38X - weekday rush-hours only, varied from 8 to 20 minutes. Mornings, ran only northbound, evenings, southbound.

The route itself:
This is the MOTHER of all SouthDade buses. What is now known as Busway MAX originally began as an express route that would ply the freeways down south and go to Dadeland North in the morning and do it in reverse in the evening. A typical northbound trip would leave the Fla. Keys Factory Shops (Now Prime Outlets at Florida City) and go west on SW 344 St. (Palm Drive) to SW 182 Ave. (Roberts Rd. or SW/NW 6 Ave. in both Florida City AND Homestead.) and turned left. It went up to SW 320 St.and turned right, going east to US-1. Then it would head north until it got to SW 216 St., where it would turn right and go down to 112 Avenue. Then it went up 112th to 211 St., and it went down to 107th avenue, which is also the on-ramp tothe Turnpike.. The old Cutler Ridge Park N Ride was there. After serving it, it got on the Turnpike, getting off to serve the lots on SW 186 and 152 Streets. The bus would keep on as it turned into the Don Shula Expressway, and then the Snapper Creek Expressway, exiting at SW 72 Avenue and entering Dadeland North. Suthbound it's in reverse.
     The 38x was a big sucess, and it's southern terminus was pushed farther down, first it was the Greyhound station, then the Fla. City City Hall, and when it opened in 1994, the Florida Keys Factory Shops, which is just east of US-1. This was in the pre-Busway days. On Friday, January 30, 1997, the last 38x buses ran. On Sunday February 2, with a lot of fanfare, the Busway opened. The next day service began, and the 38 express became Busway MAX. Back then,the big buses only ran it at rush-hour, with mini-buses middays and evenings and weekends. This was stopped on Sunday April 19, 1998, due to the massive ridership increases, and the big buses started running full time. Also at first the bus ended at 10 PM, with only the Busway Local running until 1:45 AM. Last year they were flip-flopped, now the MAX is the late runner. There is high ridership here, it's not unusual to see a standing load on an articulated there.

Click here to see the first page I did on this route, which I had forgotten
about. It has some scans from the 38x schedule on it.