USA: Construction and testing of the AirportLink project is scheduled for completion this summer, setting the stage for the launching of the Orange Line Metrorail service to the new Miami International Airport Metrorail Station on 28th July 2012.

The new 2.4-mile track to the airport is expected to shuttle 800,000 to 1.2 million passengers a year to and from the airport along the county Metrorail system.



"I'm thrilled that the Miami International Airport Metrorail Station will be open for business soon, and providing our residents and visitors with a great new amenity," Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a statement. "All of the world's leading cities — London, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney — have rail links that connect their international airports to the urban core, and now we're joining that club."



"This is not only an important transportation project that will provide travel choices for people, but it is also a transformational economic development project in the sense that every hotel and business in downtown Miami, Kendall and everywhere else along the Metrorail system will now be at the front door of Miami International Airport — the largest economic engine in the region," said County Transit Director Ysela Llort.

The county broke ground on the project in May 2009 with cost totalling $506 million. The Florida Department of Transportation provided $101.3 million of it, with $404.7 million from the county's Citizens Independent Transportation Plan.

The plan, which voters approved Nov. 5, 2002, collects a half-percent surtax for transportation projects.

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