Update on Tampa Light Rail Plans

[tufsu1]

Now I understand how the first line could be $100 million a mile...because they likely aren't using the CSX tracks anymore!

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/dec/07/hart-sets-june-deadline-light-rail-route-plan/news-breaking/

[thelakelander]

Makes sense.  I've always wondered how realistic the idea of putting LRT on CSX's ROW was in the first place.

[Ocklawaha]

It's VERY realistic as long as the State reaches an agreement with CSX. The only restrictions would be temporal or physical separation of the LRT vehicles from CSX/Amtrak. On lightly used lines that's easy to do, buying the railroad, leasing the operations back to CSX for night switching. HART or JTA use the lines during the day.

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

finally fixed the typos in the thread title...sorry!

[thelakelander]

Ock, how lightly used is that CSX rail line running through Tampa up to Brooksville?  That section serves a couple of large mines in Brooksville area.  There is also a spur that serves just most of Tampa's industrial base and Pinellas County.  In addition to this, the line heading into downtown gets a couple of Amtrak trains a day.  If Amtrak expands, that number heading into Union Terminal will increase.  On the surface it looks like a logistical nightmare.

[CS Foltz]

At least they are getting the funding into place before hand rather than after! So that would make 3....count them......3 rail systems in that region! We have none and will stay with none but they are working on THREE possibility's only one of which is funded by the local area! The other two systems are funded by State and Federal Funds.......that is yours and mine Tax Dollars hard at work and what does Jacksonville get out of it? Not awhole lot of anything and this irritates me to no end! Anyone want to bet just what the ridership will be for HSR and Sunrail down there?

[thelakelander]

I seriously doubt the referendum passes, if they don't find a way to trim the insane estimates they keep coming up with.  They don't have a plan B, so if A doesn't work out, they'll be in worse shape than Jax.

[CS Foltz]

Agreed!!

[Ocklawaha]

Ock, how lightly used is that CSX rail line running through Tampa up to Brooksville?  That section serves a couple of large mines in Brooksville area.  There is also a spur that serves just most of Tampa's industrial base and Pinellas County.  In addition to this, the line heading into downtown gets a couple of Amtrak trains a day.  If Amtrak expands, that number heading into Union Terminal will increase.  On the surface it looks like a logistical nightmare.

Two lines are all but dead, St. Petersburg and Brooksville, with the latter being down to MAYBE one train daily, 5 days a week. St. Pete isn't much better, with the immediate downtown Tampa area about the only heavy working area left, so calculate 1-2 trains daily with a local working Tampa metro.

Probably the heaviest rail dependent area is a loop, something like our old "S" that ties back in both on the North and South, and runs north out of Union Station toward Sulfur Springs Junction (Brooksville branch), then doubles back east eventually landing back at the mainline east of TUS.
The benefit is, since the loop is complete, HART could use either side of it, leaving the heaviest working part to CSX, and LRT going up the "light" side.


OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

What about Amtrak?  Assuming that a Florida corridor service is created one day, how does running LRT on the same track impact that?

[CS Foltz]

lake..........this is more Ock's Deptartment than mine but scheduling should be the key until you have alternate track which are not CSX's............that would be a while down range!

[thelakelander]

Ock, any real life american examples (Amtrak and LRT operating on the same track) out there that we can refer too?