JTA meetings on the future of the Skyway

[thelakelander]

I don't think we've proven that it can't be a part of a smart transit plan moving forward. I've never understood the argument or position to demo or doing anything that would trigger a repayment.

We've got thousands of more residents living in and around downtown than we had 20 years ago. There are thousands of more coming. We're also investing a significant amount of cash in public realm assets such as the riverfront parks and the Emerald Trail. Real development around Skyway stations and facilities in LaVilla, Pearl Street, Brooklyn and the Southbank is now happening after years of dreams. Land use is finally beginning to align with the transit investment and infrastructure already in place.

Until there's a viable regional transit plan and funds lined up to implement a real alternative, maintain what we have because there is the possibility that the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence.

[marcuscnelson]

^ I agree, which is why I said earlier that I would rather go with the No Build alternative than one that actively devalues the investment in the guideway through reconstruction for the U2C or a cheap copy of the High Line.

The design of the Skyway doesn't lend itself to running to the airport or beaches like some less-informed folks have suggested, but for modest extensions to Brooklyn, San Marco, and (granted this might be foreclosed by the parallel investment in NAVI) the Sports Complex it's a plenty suitable light metro system that would fix well within a broader transit network. But JTA has spent a decade and millions now on "mobility integrators" and "Silicon Valley of the East" instead, and the City for whatever reason has enabled those fantasies instead of trying to actually leverage its own investments in development incentives and infrastructure to demand a real transit plan. And now the state has put suburbanites potentially in the driver's seat on future decisions and forefeit a future focus on more urban connectivity.

It's a real shame that things have gotten to such a point that people like Alex Sifakis are having to be here or on the news at public meetings to beg for something that is at least cheap and (potentially) fast because we've done so little to give developers any transit for Transit Oriented Development in the very center of town.

[Jankelope]

I just have a feeling that they are going to make whichever decision makes the least sense.

[Jagsdrew]

Option 6: Find a retrofit option for existing Skyway BUT find a retrofit option to take it from elevation to ground for future expansion that is less expensive than building elevated sections. This can open up to areas beyond the Core.

A section of Riverside Ave is SIX Lanes. You can easily take two of those lanes to have a ground network to stop at all the retail development/Whole Foods/residential and extend it to RAM, Cummer, 5 Points.

It's low hanging fruit yet we're creating ideas for expensive bumper cars.

[Joey Mackey]

1. Repair of existing cars is maintenance of the system. This should be required, not a future option. There's still a limited self life with this option, so it should be combined with #2.

When we propose this type of stuff without considering feasibility and cost, etc. it simply confuses the public and wastes time. More than a decade ago, the public feedback was to fix up and expand the Skyway, not turn it into a system of autonomous human driven camper vans or being the first at experiementing with a risky form of technology. Lets get back to the basic purpose and move forward.

I agree with both of these sentiments so much. Just fix the dang thing. For the life of me, I cannot understand why our city institutions consistently propose ideas straight out of Willie Wonka's Factory, that nobody asked for. Anecdotally, I tried to be a good Jaxon and take the Skyway to and from work for about a month a few years ago, and it was a disaster. The trains were routinely late, not just by a few minutes, by thirty minutes (or more, who knows, I had to drive). The trains were occasionally out of service. I can't imagine what it is like now. Just get the Skyway running on time, and people will use it. We don't need a Constitutional Convention to figure that out.

[Charles Hunter]

Our very own Ennis gets a shout-out in a Jax Business Journal article about the JTA-Skyway.

Some advocates involved with infrastructure projects in Duval such as urban planner Ennis Davis argued the problem was not the guideway itself but the city's failure to integrate it with surrounding neighborhoods and transit options. Rather than scrap it, they urged Jacksonville to modernize the system and connect it to fixed transit serving Riverside, Brooklyn and San Marco — a vision rooted in walkable, transit-oriented urban living.

Might be behind a paywall sorry.
https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2026/02/27/jta-ponders-skyway-future-facing-up-to-100m-risk.html?ana=e_JA_me&j=44395773&senddate=2026-02-27&empos=p4

[jcjohnpaint]

What I don't understand is we voted on this prior to the NAVI, and if I remember correctly we voted to keep the system and extend into Brooklyn. We got NAVI, so JTA did not listen. We are they doing this again, and why would they listen to anyone this time?