JTA's first commuter rail citizen's committee meeting this Thursday

[thelakelander]

The first JTA commuter rail study meeting will take place this Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 5:30 p.m.  For those who are interested, this will be a good opportunity to gain a little insight into the plan and give suggestions on how it should be developed.

The meeting will be held at JTA's offices located at 100 North Myrtle Avenue, just north of the Myrtle / West Bay Street intersection.

[thelakelander]

Tonight's meeting actually starts at 5:30pm, instead of 6pm, as originally announced.

[Ocklawaha]

Wouldn't it be great if about 300 people showed up?

Ocklawaha

[Steve]

Well, this was interesting.  JTA has hired consultants that (and I'm not kidding here) actually seem to know what they are doing.  Now, JTA ultimately controls the study, so the board could easily just say screw it to this, but soomebody did take the step to bring consuntants in from out of town that have a ton of experience with this sort of thing (a little shocking).

We could have had the BRT crew in here shoving a billion dollar bus down our throats, but they didn't which was a little refreshing.

With all of that said, if I were to equate this to a football game, we haven't even gone out for warmups yet, let alone kicked off.

[thelakelander]

I'm concerned none of this matters if JTA isn't willing to be open to accepting the fact that some BRT corridors may be better served by various forms of commuter rail. 

[Ocklawaha]

..."we had to let certain officers go, you know, we brought them in to do this rail study, we were under a lot of pressure from the community to study rail. Well, we DID study rail, and water, zeppelins and even giant tubes that based on pneumatic's would suck the passengers across town. We even had a name for all of it, "DIAL A SUCKER". But in the end, BRT was just the only fit for Jacksonville. Remember folks we're professionals, don't try this at home, we've had great success stories like JTB and Dames Point Bridge...You'll love the buses, you really will, they will look like trains, all you have to do is THINK RAIL AND RIDE THE BUS!"

FLOP...

CLUNK...

Where's that Boo, is it 4:20 yet? Anyone want to join me?

Exclusive video of the JTA educational film for new consultants:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qc9MMMoyec&feature=related

Ocklawaha

[Lunican]

The Florida Times-Union

February 1, 2008

Commuter rail study under way

By DAVID HUNT,
The Times-Union

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority reached out to urban planners and retired railroad workers Thursday to give suggestions for a possible commuter train system in the region.

The exchange between the group and those conducting a roughly $400,000 rail study signified the first meeting of the commuter rail citizens advisory panel. The study, headed by Camp Hill, Pa.-based consultants Gannett Fleming Inc., is expected to conclude by December.

"Based on our congestion and the rail system we have now, we'd like to think it's feasible," said James Boyle, regional transportation planner for JTA. "But we need the study to make sure it's feasible."

Full Article:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/020108/met_242544190.shtml