JTA Skyway Riverside Extension

[Ocklawaha]

stjr Welcome to Beautiful Sunny MOSCOW, home to one of the dozens of new world leading monorail systems.


Lake, you'll remember that these numbers are very close to the ones various vendors have told us about Jacksonville, expansion. Your right, someone is getting very rich because we are being robbed.

The per mile cost that you quoted, included a few very expensive but needed items. A bridge over the St. Johns River, which would have cost more then the total Skyway amount just for 4 auto lanes. We also bought a very high tech operations center, car barn, and shop complex, of which MJ has toured.

Having just returned from a photo tour of the new systems around the world can make one ill. Why Jacksonville isn't leading the State in transportation and transportation technology's is simply because we have elected "good old boys" that have completely trashed what was once the cutting edge we had in Florida. Like Jacksonville Terminal, streetcars, and commuter rail, the Skyway is just one more chance to retake the lead.


Check out this beautiful Moscow station. Hey where are the goofy gates? Maybe Russians aren't stupid enough to jump off the platform or onto the third rail!


Oh, and it works when it's -40 below zero too. First run of the day swipes the tracks clean of fresh snow.

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

P.S. I wonder if the stated $40 million cost in the Clarion project includes ALL the costs including land acquisition, etc. or if this is just what went through the main contractor.  And, what and how much equipment and capacity came with that?[/b]

It runs on public ROW, but let us know what you find.  If capital cost numbers are truly that low, there are questions that need to answered about why projects here are priced out significantly higher.

[CS Foltz]

Thats an easy one to answer.....GOB Network hard at work lineing their pockets with taxpayers money!

[tufsu1]

and you think that other cities, like Indy, don't have a GOB network?

[CS Foltz]

No! GOB Network is entrenched everywhere! Jacksonville is just starting to notice and its past time!

[ramonher]

Why extend into riverside, extend to the stadium!

[CS Foltz]

There was an earlier post that said words to the effect "Auction the Skyway off"! At first thought I was thinking what a dumb idea, then I got to thinking on it some more and I think the idea has merit! Why not? Let private enterprise have at it........done properly it could make someone money so why not let them have at!

[exnewsman]

Why extend into riverside, extend to the stadium!

So lets see - you have a dozen football games, some 40 baseball games and a few concerts each year. How does that justify spending $100 million extending the Skyway to the Stadium area? If you have hotels/condos building in the area to sustain service the other 300 days a year, then perhaps it could work. Besides, the current stadium shuttle service was rated the tops in the NFL by football (see Sports Illustrated last year). So, IMO, the need for transportation to the stadium really isn't there.

[mtraininjax]

The Citizens of Jax would get more value of the Skyway cars as salt water reefs than we do right now!

[Shwaz]

Why extend into riverside, extend to the stadium!

So lets see - you have a dozen football games, some 40 baseball games and a few concerts each year. How does that justify spending $100 million extending the Skyway to the Stadium area? If you have hotels/condos building in the area to sustain service the other 300 days a year, then perhaps it could work. Besides, the current stadium shuttle service was rated the tops in the NFL by football (see Sports Illustrated last year). So, IMO, the need for transportation to the stadium really isn't there.

I think $100 million is a bit over the top. Wasn't there a more realistic estimate out there?

[Captain Zissou]

Why extend into riverside, extend to the stadium!

Because I want a whole skyway car to myself to ride to work..... Duh. 

^^Exnewsman.... 55-ish days of events going on at the sports complex?? You forgot two of Jax's favorite pastimes; wrestling and monster trucks!  2-4 wrestling events a year and at least one monster truck rally and a tractor pull.  River run, kids kampus, metro park, 2 NEWS stations, maxwell house, future shipyards project... Plenty of reasons to extend it.

Until we can actually get a couple folks excited about extending it, I say don't.  Use that money to fund another county fair or UFC event.  Heck, we could even use it to buy a pair of jorts for everyone in the city!

[JeffreyS]

We are not talking all the way to Riverside anyway just Brooklyn where there is already a line and a station plus a short extension that we already own the ROW to BCBS, Everbank and Fidelity.  These plans are based on the Brooklyn developments which the economy has put on hold.  If the Brooklyn projects are built it would be an excelent TOD and employer based extension.

[Ocklawaha]

The Citizens of Jax would get more value of the Skyway cars as salt water reefs than we do right now!

Actually mtraininjax, I think your wrong on this. Speaking from a purely environmental standpoint I think the PCT (potato-chip trucks painted to look something like a Trolley) fleet should be the first to take that plunge. Another use might be out a Camp Blanding, where the big guns are always looking for targets.

OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

Ock, the ocean is big enough for all of Jax's "fishy" boondoggles.  We can create our own version of the legendary underwater city of Atlantis, Jaxatlantis!  We will have to change the $ky-high-way's name though to "$ea-low-way"  !  For sure, it will have more visitors below the sea, than above it.

[heights unknown]

Extend to Riverside, Southside and the Stadium.  Northside we cannot justify at present, but the others we can (possibly Westside in the future).

Heights Unknown