Commuter Rail around Tampa proposed

[McIntyre2K7]

Wow, this is pretty cool. Seems pretty well thought out! What are the chances of this sort of vision happening?

I don't think this happens until we get the majority of voters to approve it. The reason I went with this is we should use the rails that we already have. I have one commuter rail line from Tampa up to Brooksville. I think that would be a good start. I usually have people talk about sprawl but I tell them how underfunded transit is in just Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located.

There is one line I did extend from Tampa to Lakeland. To be honest I think there's a chance that Lakeland doesn't get a stop from Brightline when they expand to Tampa. It sucks because the original plans in 2009 had a stop there. So what I think would be a perfect alternative is to have the line go from Tampa Union Station to Lakeland and then extend the SunRail to Lakeland as well. (note this doesn't work with the help of CSX).

 

[jruff001]

Not so fast. I think it's possible to make it work in Tampa Bay Area. Now this is something I've been working on. This is a mix of commuter rail and BRT with one light rail line from Wesley Chapel to the USF area. I wanted to expand Tampa Union Station so the road to the north was removed. I'm not finished with it yet as the local system hasn't released the updated for the TDP for 2021. Also the Florida Supreme Court struck down the penny sales tax increase from 2018. One of the county commissioners was upset as they have no control over how the funds were distributed as it was required that funds were allocated to exact areas. The county as well as the three cities would split the about 59 percent of the revenue, the local transit agency would get 40% and the remaining 1% would go to the regional transportation planning commission.

Here is map of what I made below.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1FtQbqhj8bB1S6pDlEtxqTd9-9gsmb27k&usp=sharing

It doesn't expand to the Downtown St Pete Area. However if the Rays do decide to leave Tropicana field would be an excellent place for TOD.

Very cool!

I'd expand the Silver Line from Clearwater to DTSP through Largo and Pinellas Park. Lots of people in that corridor and there is already a RoW (that is not the Pinellas Trail).

Or (this is what is in my head / on my back-of-the-napkin diagrams): A line from Carillon to Clearwater with a Y-design centered on Carillon, giving three options with Carillon as a transfer point in addition to serving the office parks there: Tampa - Carillon - SP; SP - Carillon - Clearwater; and Clearwater - Carillon - Tampa.

 

[McIntyre2K7]

Very cool!

I'd expand the Silver Line from Clearwater to DTSP through Largo and Pinellas Park. Lots of people in that corridor and there is already a RoW (that is not the Pinellas Trail).

Or (this is what is in my head / on my back-of-the-napkin diagrams): A line from Carillon to Clearwater with a Y-design centered on Carillon, giving three options with Carillon as a transfer point in addition to serving the office parks there: Tampa - Carillon - SP; SP - Carillon - Clearwater; and Clearwater - Carillon - Tampa.

So I had a separate line from Clearwater to DTSP however I think CSX removed the tracks leading up to the Trop. Now if the Rays leave St. Pete that would be the perfect place to add a new station. I guess a one seat trip from DTSP to central Tampa could work.

I think I left the Carillon area off because there's already express bus service that runs from Pinellas Park to Tampa International Airport and to Downtown Tampa. I think they are planning to add express BRT service as well.

 

[west point]

What is needed but will never happen is a rail bridge over the bay to St. Pete.

 

[McIntyre2K7]

What is needed but will never happen is a rail bridge over the bay to St. Pete.

Last time I checked they are adding lanes for light rail. It's apart of the new construction of the Howard Frankland Bridge that should end in 4 years.

 

[jruff001]

Last time I checked they are adding lanes for light rail. It's apart of the new construction of the Howard Frankland Bridge that should end in 4 years.

I read this about the project too. Plus the I-275 rebuild through West Tampa a few years ago left a huge median for potential rail some day. So at least SOMEone is thinking ahead.