JTA looking at October start on Regional Transportation Center

[thelakelander]

It will be interesting to see what type of coordination has taken place between the Convention Center task force and JTA, since both are looking at using a portion of the Prime Osborn for their specific uses.

JTA’s Regional Transportation Center has been in the conceptual stages for several years. There have been countless studies done and numerous consultants have all chimed in on the best way for JTA, Amtrak and Greyhound to combine their efforts into a multi-modal transportation hub in LaVilla.

Barring any setbacks, JTA plans to put ideas to paper by October. JTA Executive Director Mike Blaylock recently asked Mayor John Peyton to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, an agreement that outlines how JTA and the City will proceed in an effort to assure the project gets underway in October. According to Blaylock, the MOU is required by the Florida Department of Transportation, another major player in the project that will incorporate the Osborn Center and several blocks in LaVilla and include a parking structure.

“We did receive it (the letter from Blaylock) and we are taking a look at it,” said Susie Wiles, spokesperson for Peyton.

Wendy Morrow of JTA said the entire project will cost $173 million and that the MOU only requires a commitment of $5 million from the City. Of that $5 million, a little over $1.49 million is due by October; the remaining $3.5 million is due by July 2009, a date that coincides with FDOT’s remaining commitment to the project.

Morrow said by October JTA plans to begin the final stages of the road network design phase. She said the entire project â€" which includes an Amtrak station, a relocated Greyhound station, a regional Intelligent Transportation System management center, a JTA bus hub, a Park-n-Ride facility, JTA offices, retail space, parking and a pedestrian concourse â€" will take several years to construct and will be built in phases as funds become available.

“Roadway construction will begin in the fall of 2008 and we’ll begin building (the center) in the fall of 2009,” said Morrow, adding that Amtrak and Greyhound have both been in on discussions about the project and have agreed, to date, to participate. She said the center will be built even if Amtrak or Greyhound backs out.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=47929

the transportation center will eat up six blocks in LaVilla, not including the old rail terminal


it will also include a 2,000 space parking garage, a 95,000sf JTA office building & moving elevated sidewalks


click here for more renderings: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/76/109/

[Lunican]

I think the most important part of the plan is getting Amtrak back into the terminal, bringing it back to its original use as a train station.

Has Amtrak shown any interest in doing this though?

[copperfiend]

I hope so. I love going to Grand Central or Union Station. Union Station is my favorite.

[Lunican]

No way, Grand Central is much better.

[copperfiend]

To each his own.

[thelakelander]

I'll take Penn Station over the others.

[Lunican]

Penn Station before it was torn down. The Penn Station of today is pretty horrible.

By the way, which Union Station were you referring to. I've been to the one in Washington DC and Chicago, but there are a lot of them.

[thelakelander]

yeah... the bulldozed Penn Station that our terminal was modeled after.

[copperfiend]

I am speaking of DC. Never been to the one in Chicago.

[Ocklawaha]

The best stations? Oh I remember a few myself...

(Terms: Through station - Tracks pass through and are accessable from either end of the platforms. A Head Station [also called a stub station] is located at the end of the tracks, only accessable from one direction)

#1 Jacksonville Terminal, Head AND through terminal, once had a massive trainshed too.
#2 Dallas Union Station, a nice through terminal, died way before it's time, revived with commuter rail/Amtrak
#3 Oklahoma City Union Station, great through terminal design, closed before Amtrak, threatened by freeway.
#4 Dearborn Street Station, Chicago, Head station, but so old and funky, who couldn't love it, closed in 1971.
#5 Portland Union Station, Through Terminal, castle like, preserved and busy as can be today.
#6 Tacoma Union Station, Through Terminal, Giant rotunda like building re-made several times, beautiful
#7 Milwaukee Union Station, Through Terminal, shades of greatness still lurk in the shadows.
#8 Montgomery Union Station, Through Terminal, a mini-Grand Central of the South, re-developed
#9 Chattanooga Union Station, Head AND through terminal, tiny little station, grand but GONE, not the choo choo
#10 Little Rock Union Station, Through Terminal, fully redevloped, under served by Amtrak, better future?

Well, okay, Tampa, and Pensacola, both have/had a nice station. Tampa, was a Head station with a couple of through tracks, but a great iron patio cover. The old Frisco, had a beautiful Mission Style station, in a garden, in Pensacola, but the last train pulled out about 1947. Perhaps the prettiest little station in all of Florida, once served the Atlantic Coast Line, at Everglades City. I haven't checked but understand it's still standing as a restaurant.

Ocklawaha

[Lunican]

Grand Central is my favorite:





but I think the Jacksonville Terminal is the most impressive in Florida:

[Jason]

Finally, things are getting rolling on this thing.  I really hope they're going to be taking a good ahrd look at a possible comnuter rail line to make the station even more viable.  As the design sits now there will still be very little access to the rest of the immediate region without a commuter system to feed in the riders.  Connect it to the ariport and Jacksonville would have a descent transportation system for a city our size.

[Ocklawaha]

Here is a group of classic stations that I mentioned above, note that NONE of them are scattered across 3 or 4 City blocks in different buildings. JTA needs to get real about it's concepts and use the convention center.  


Jacksonville Terminal Prettiest AND largest in the South!

Dallas Union Station, rebuilt and in use daily

Oklahoma City, the State wants to build a freeway 15 feet from the back door!

Dearborne, in Chicago, Oldest of the Chicago Stations recycled today.

Portland, Oregon, beautiful old station, never gave up on the train

Tacoma, Visitors Center to Courthouse to Depot again, it looks great inside too!

Milwaukee, several depots here, but my heart goes to the old Milwaukee Road Union Station

Montgomery, The City did a great job of rebuilding this grand old example of a Southern landmark

Chattanooga Union, By the time I saw her, she was tiny, covered in signs and had only one train daily

Little Rock, Watch this station, Arkansas is making strides in State services, maybe Amtrak is next?

Tampa, okay, it's tiny but that Iron Patio cover out back and streetcars out front make it stand out.

Pensacola, long lost landmark in the Panhandle, shame that someone didn't grab this for other uses.



Los Angeles, newest of the "great stations" circa 1940's, NOTHING beats the interior of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal.

Ocklawaha

[Steve]

"it will also include a 2,000 space parking garage"

For who? Who will be driving to downtown to park in this Garage (I can see Amtrak Customers), but 2,000 seems a bit high, doesn't it?

[Ocklawaha]

Really?!? Ocklawaha has lost his marbles? No, just think about it, we have a do nothing bus system that is underutilized. We have a "broken" Skyway, that JTA has no apparent intention of finishing. Toss in a couple of water taxi's and add in 70,000 people that WORK in the CBD of Jacksonville! OUCH! Now if that garage is well connected to I-95, along with others in San Marco, Riverside, 8Th Street, Memorial Hospital, Arlington Expressway at (let's just say) Randolph Street, and we ring downtown with garages, and ring the burbs, with 1,000 car park and ride TOD lots (that's a nice parking lot or garage with landscape, urban park, security, lights, kiosks for maps and tickets, retail and food) all connected to a system of long-distance "COACH" buses, trains, LRT and Skyway, we could quickly join the rank of one of those few cities, where urban dwellers brag, "Oh Jacksonville is nice, you just DON'T NEED A CAR!" That is Jacksonville utopia. Let's get the autos and buses out of downtown and recreate the Garden of Eden our City is destined to become!  


Don't think it can be done? Where is this photo?
How about right in the MIDDLE of DOWNTOWN San Antonio, Texas! True!
Ocklawaha