QuoteMass Transit 'Critical' For Bay Area
The Tampa Tribune
By Lindsay Peterson
November 26, 2008
U.S. Rep. John Mica said he came to Tampa on Tuesday to encourage local officials to get in line for transportation money that soon will flow from Washington.
He also had a warning.
The Tampa area is years behind other cities in developing mass transit, he said. "It's critical that Tampa Bay is also in this game. ... It's almost embarrassing to have parts of Florida without a modern transportation system."
Mica, R-Winter Park, is minority party leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He said he didn't mean to criticize, but his comments still put a few people on defense.
"Hillsborough County is moving forward," Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio told Mica at the gathering at Stetson University College of Law's Tampa Law Center. "We're very serious" about mass transit, she said.
She said that local transportation officials plan to ask Hillsborough County voters to approve a 1-cent sales tax in 2010 for a commuter rail system. "With local support, we will be in a greater position to make the case to the federal government" for funding, Iorio said.
Mica agreed and said that federal transportation money likely will be flowing in the next few years.
"We have every reason to believe there will be a stimulus package, and it will be a rather large stimulus package," he said, noting that every $1 billion in public works spending creates about 35,000 jobs. In addition, his committee has started hearings on a new mass transit and highway bill.
He said the committee is looking at new ways to pay for transportation projects, emphasizing that the 18-cent federal gasoline tax is not enough.
Mica also used the Tampa meeting to generate support for Orlando's commuter rail project. The state plans to spend about $500 million to buy 61 miles of tracks from CSX Transportation for the DeLand-to-Poinciana system. State officials expect another $500 million to come from the federal government and the Orlando area cities and counties, though the federal money has yet to be allocated.
The plan stalled in the state Legislature this year when lawmakers failed to approve CSX's request for liability protection. CSX plans to continue to move freight on the 61-mile right of way, but if it causes an accident that harms a commuter train or passengers, it wants the state to take responsibility.
Mica said that is typical of arrangements other public rail agencies have made with private rail companies.
"I've got to have liability resolution," he said. "The consequence is you're on hold, and everyone is on hold."
He told me the same thing and passed off a special communication to "GET ME SOMETHING BOB!" We go way back and it might be the party on the Right that takes us to the Amtrak = Transit livable dream. Odd because without the "evil Republican plan for Amtrak" we might not have any trains to rebuild. Time is weird and The Lord works in strange ways... It's all good.
OCKLAWAHA
QuoteMayor Makes Her Case For Tampa-Centric Rail
By RICH SHOPES
rshopes@tampatrib.com
Published: January 24, 2009
TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio made an impassioned pitch Friday for a Tampa-centric rail plan to members of TBARTA, the region's transportation authority, saying the system's first leg could be built in five or six years if approved by voters in a 2010 referendum.
Iorio, who is a Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority board member, said the plan dovetails with the authority's effort to create a master transportation plan for seven counties: Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota.
The mayor took criticism a few months ago when she proposed that TBARTA launch its rail program by focusing on Tampa and Hillsborough County.
Board members said she was moving too fast and had not first sought consensus.
Friday morning, Iorio countered, saying Tampa and Hillsborough have spent $15 million in the past 20 years studying rail and are further along in developing a plan than other communities in TBARTA's jurisdiction.
The mayor is pushing to bring the issue to Hillsborough voters in 2010 to ask for a 1-cent increase in the sales tax. Additional funding would come from the federal government and the state.
The Tampa-Hillsborough County plan would have trains running from the University of South Florida to downtown, the West Shore business district and Tampa International Airport.
The system's first leg would be an 11-mile stretch between USF and downtown because studies show that of all the corridors in the Bay area, that one has the greatest transit need, Iorio said.
"In 2010, if the voters of Hillsborough approve that 1-cent sales tax, that can go to preliminary engineering, that can go to design, ... that can probably be built in five or six years," the mayor said.
Additionally, having a line up and running would spur other communities to move their plans along, she said. Without rail, the region's highways are facing gridlock because of anticipated population growth in northern Hillsborough and southern Pasco counties.
"You have to show people success, and you can show lines on a map forever, but there's nothing like getting on the train and riding it," Iorio said.
The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority could operate the Tampa-Hillsborough rail line until other counties come onboard, at which time TBARTA would take over.
TBARTA's backing of the plan would, Iorio said, help in a bid for state and federal funding and help persuade Hillsborough County commissioners this fall to put the issue on next year's ballot.
The mayor seemed to win over at least some members. None objected to the idea.
Hillsborough Commissioner Ken Hagen said he supported it and said the rail plan should be packaged with proposals to build roads and sidewalks and bike trails.
Pasco Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, Sarasota Commissioner Nora Patterson, board member Shawn Harrison and board Chairman Shelton Quarles praised the mayor's presentation.
Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, who criticized the mayor a few months ago, said after the meeting, "If they're prepared to go forward, I think that's great."
Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/24/na-mayor-makes-her-case-for-tampa-centric-rail/news-metro/
Would Ms. Iorio consider becoming mayor of a town a little further north?
I also noticed that the Tampa Tribune reporter refrained from suggesting that rail is a failing proposition...and that it won't turn a profit. lol.
Yea right Pro Max! Man for the sake of Jax I hope the people in Tampa Bay vote no on the sales tax, so they can stay behind like Jacksonville...I get so sick of these other florida cities moving ahead of Jax. I mean USF, The Airport and Downtown? wow!!! those are some small ideas...talk about getting some mass transit that connects UNF with JIA and all the drivers start crying NO WE NEED WIDER ROADS!!!
One very important fact was left out....HARTline first studied this rail ine 10 years ago and finished all of the environmental studies by 2002....but when the County Commission refused to even put the tax issue on the ballot, Tampa lost its place in line with FTA.
And guess what, the Commission could still do that....regardless of what Mayor Iorio wants!