Route 8
MDCC Downtown Campus to FIU-South campus via SW 8 Street (Calle Ocho / Tamiami Trail.).
See breakdown below for full route details.
Vital Stats:
Division: Coral Way
Service: Began June 15, 1986, runs roughly from 5 AM to Midnight.
Headway: Every 15 minutes (Base), rush hours every 10 minutes.
Destination signs:
Eastbound:
8 DOWNTN MIAMI / 8 via WESTCHSTR
8A DOWNTN MIAMI/8A via SW 8 ST
Westbound:
8 FIU-SOUTH / 8 via WESTCHSTR
8A FIU-SOUTH / 8A via SW 8 ST
8 WESTCHESTER
Before Network '86, was part of Route 5.
THE ROUTE ITSELF:
The 8 is an interesting bus route. It originates at the Wolfson/Downtown Campus of Miami-Dade Community College.It runs right through Downtown Miami and serves the Brickell Metrorail Station, which is on SW 1 Ave. Now 8th Street is an eastbound one-way street here, so the bus takes SW 7 Street, which is a one-way westbound street. It takes 7th all the way to Beacon Blvd., which is just before 27th Avenue and connects 7th to 8th. Here 8th becomes a two way street. This is also the heart of Little Havana. The bus takes 8th all the way west to 82nd Avenue. Here the 8 bus makes a right to go down to Coral Way, where it continues it westbound trip. The Westchester-only bus turns south on 84th and goes on 27th Street to 87th Avenue, where it returns to Coral Way and makes a right, heading back East. It's layover point is at the Westchester Mall K-mart there. The FIU bus continues to 107th Avenue, where it used to go into the FIU terminal. Of course this ended in August when Metrobus was evicted from it's own terminal. The 8 also ends at FIU, but it never turns off 8th until it gets to 107th. Both now make some loop somewhere.
The first timepoint is the Burdines on SW 1 Street and Miami Ave. That bus stop is very crowded. I mean VERY crowded. Two buses go there- the 6 and the 8. Out of the crowd, a grand total of maybe 3 want the 6 bus. Everyone else wants the 8. Thus the frequent service. Weekends it only goes to Westchester.
Back in the old days, this bus used to be called the 5. And it was actually the 8 and the 2 combined. The 2 also begins at MDCC-Wolfson.On Sunday June 15, 1986, Network '86 was implemented, and the 5 was chopped up.
By the way, if I haven't mentioned it by now, FIU is Florida International University.