Are we building rail on Main Street?

[Ocklawaha]

I'm curious , Are they going to put a rail system on the Main Street streetscape? Jeh

While this question showed up in another thread and seems to question if we will see rail laid on the current construction on North Main. The most honest answer is no, not yet. If Main Street has taught us one thing, that is, that even with full blown construction and only 2 lanes open, the street still moved along pretty good. North Main is a Federal Highway, with considerable State Control, it is possible that the Federal part US-17 could be moved to Davis, or Talleyrand, or some other North South route, including I-95. With the Federal Government out of the way, we could afford to completely rebuild the wide median, with landscaping, palms and grees that we once had. Main would become two, one way, single lane streets with some off the street parking and others angled. Otherwise look for Main Street to be built with planters in the middle, and a railroad track on the curb lane on either side.



None of the current construction will become a railway, it is more like a railway scrapping party. In the process f getting ready for the "roses" we tore out 3,000 cross-ties per mile, and piled them off Hubbard, all along the 600 block. The Jacksonville Main Street Car Line. finally bit the dust Even if JTA catches the vision, they will move so slowly that we'll never get the beauty of a landscaped, single car line as in days past.  Now that some 60-70 cities have awakened to Light Rail or Heritage Trolleys, we are still taking ours up. Wag the Dog Jacksonville? We once had the "Most Beautiful Streetcar Line in the World," and "The largest Streetcar System in Florida" and we're still talking about the modern transit bus and flexibility!

Ocklawaha