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Fast Train's Wheels Still Rolling


bobliocatt

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^Jacksonville also has serious plans to expand its mass transit system, with the proposed 29 mile BRT (future light-rail) system, that will also tie in with the skyway (which also has plans to be expanded, although no funding is in place).

The city already has $100 million saved up, to proceed with the purchasing of the right-of-way, this year. If everything proceeds, as planned, the first parts of the system should be operational by 2009.

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Why should high speed be be strictly the domain of walkers?  People keep bringing this up over and over again.  Just because it's rail does not mean that it's mass transit per se.  You don't see people walking from the airport do you?  Why should we not assume that rental car agencies along with taxi and bus stands will locate near HSR terminals. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We have to look at HSR from the domain of walkers because by using HSR you put yourself in the situation that you are relying on transit systems in the remote city (instead of your own personal vehicle) to get around. The other transit system could be taxi, local rail, buses, rental cars, etc., but unless everything is set up in one major intermodal center (which it probably eventually will be anyway), you are relying on foot power.

As bad as it is, Tampa does have a pretty walkable downtown. I can think of many instances where HSR would work great.

I agree, Tampa's downtown is walkable, and does have local bus service that goes to the trolley. However, not all jobs are downtown. There are several office complexes outside of downtown (and away from bus routes). Not to mention St. Pete / Clearwater / etc. on the other side of the bay (not fully planned for the initial build of the HSR).

Take a conventioneer. They take the train into tampa. Get a taxi to the Channelside Marriot. Walk to the convention, hop the trolley to Ybor. This is the same thing he'd be doing from the airport.

You also have to look at it from a couple of different viewpoints:

Conventioneer

It is expected that someone in town for a convention / business trip would want to take a taxi, rent a car, or any other form of transportation available. If it is only going to be a one time thing (or a few days) then it will not matter because costs will not be a major factor (they expect to spend money). Of course, this is only viable if the various schedules (i.e., HSR, local transit/bus, taxi, meetings, etc.) can mesh together cleanly.

Commuter

This person will not want to spend a lot of money on transit on a daily basis. It may work in areas like New York (extensive local and commuter rail systems), however most Floridians aren't used to it, and probably would not go for it. They will need a low cost method of getting around in the city they are travelling to. If it costs too much to travel to work and back then it would be cheaper to get a car, change jobs, or move closer to work. A taxi could be $20-$40 or more a day if they don't work near the HSR station, don't work on a bus route, or don't work a normal schedule (not an unrealistic situation here in Tampa). Not to mention the fact that commuter rail would only work on shorter links like Tampa <=> Lakeland <=> Orlando, and until they finalize the rest of the state's rail plans, we won't know how well commuters would take to those lines. Most people are going to want a backup method of getting to work just in case (not too far to drive if the HSR has a minor "glitch" one day), plus many will not want to travel 2-3 hours each way to work on a daily basis.

Family vacationers

I don't know many families that want to take small children on a bus. Maybe a taxi, but even then it would not be to their advantage due to the need for sudden changes of plans (a child needing to use the restroom, needing to get food, etc.). In this case a rental car agency at the transit station would be the best setup, but as I said in an earlier post, if they are only going from Tampa <=> Orlando, then it might not be cost effective to buy 3-5 round trip rail passes on top of renting a car for in-town travel. This would be great for the Miami <=> Orlando route, but that line is still years away from the planning stages.

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