Pinellas leaders want first leg of light rail

[JeffreyS]

Pinellas leaders want first leg of light rail
Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Larry Halstead Staff Writer


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TAMPA â€" All aboard, it’s time to pick a route for light rail in Tampa Bay.

As the deadline nears for the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority to complete its master plan, ideas for the first leg of the light rail system are surfacing â€" as are some differences of opinion.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio suggested a Hillsborough County plan that runs from New Tampa to downtown then west to the Westshore District and Tampa International Airport, ending at Linebaugh Avenue.

“One community has to be first, and Hillsborough is very far along in its studies and checking off the boxes for regulatory approval,” Iorio said.

The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority commissioned a light rail study years ago that, with updates, can serve Hillsborough County, Iorio said. HART might even be in line to operate the rail system.

But she was clear that this system would be within the framework of TBARTA, which is developing a long-range transit system for the seven-county region surrounding Tampa Bay and includes routes that start and end in Tampa.

“I’m just following the template of the regional (TBARTA) plan,” she said. Two TBARTA members from Pinellas County believe that Pinellas should be part of the first phase of a regional transit route.

The first step has to cross a county line to be regional, said Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard. A route from downtown St. Petersburg to the Carillon area in North St. Petersburg and then to TIA should be included on the initial leg, Hibbard said.
Financial urgency in Pinellas

St. Petersburg has its own financial shortfalls and might not be able to wait for a second or third phase of TBARTA, said city councilman Jeff Danner. The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, the county’s bus system, is faced with rising ridership and declining revenue because of lower ad valorum taxes.

“Should PSTA wait for TBARTA to finish its plans?” Danner asked. “We have to look at options now to keep PSTA afloat.”

Any light rail system will need an extensive bus system to support it. Both PSTA and HART are having difficulties expanding the systems with less ad valorum revenue.

“If we get a penny sales tax increase, we need 76 percent of that right now to expand the bus system,” Danner said.

Iorio wants to pay for light rail costs by placing a sales tax for transit on the 2010 ballot.

By then TBARTA should have its master plan ready to implement, the area metropolitan planning organizations should be on board and the vision should be concrete enough to present to the voters, she said. “I’m all for a Hillsborough-Pinellas connection, but I haven’t seen that line on a map yet,” Iorio said.

A penny of local sales tax for transit might produce as much as $209 million per year, although how much would go to HART and how much to TBARTA is yet to be determined. It may come down to first in, first out â€" and HART is posturing to be first in line.

That money, coupled with a federal grant that could cover 50 percent of the project and state money that funds 25 percent of new startups, would go a long way toward paying for the $40 million to $80 million a mile that a light rail system costs.
Building a fan base

The federal government will never approve money to cross the bay until robust riderships are built on each side, said Ed Crawford, HART’s government affairs officer. Hillsborough is ready to go with a light rail system and if it doesn’t harm TBARTA’s efforts, why not do it, Crawford asked.

Since TBARTA has no taxing authority now, each county will have to approve its own tax. A likely scenario is for each county to approve taxes when it is ready to construct legs as part of the TBARTA system, said Bob Clifford, director of intermodal systems development for the Florida Department of Transportation.
Tales of other cities

The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority is trying to fast track a transit system that avoids the travails that delayed systems in other cities.

• Dallas: Voters defeated a penny sales tax increase in 1980 but flipped in 1983 and approved the tax to fund and build 147 miles of rail, 29 miles of high-occupant vehicle lanes and an expanded bus system. Throughout the 1980s, Dallas Area Rapid Transit struggled to build a system without long-term debt. By 1989, voters approved a bond issue, and now the system stretches 115 miles with rail and has 110 miles of high-occupant vehicle lanes.

• Salt Lake City: The city started with 15 miles of light rail from the heart of downtown to points south.

Construction started in 1996 with a cost of $312 million. A second line, 2.3 miles long with four stations, opened in 2001 costing $118.5 million, and a third line was added two years later. Ridership on the system, projected at 21,000 riders per day, is up to 48,000 riders.

In 2002, Salt Lake City completed the purchase of 175 miles of right-of-way to expand the system further.

• Phoenix: Residents paid taxes to fund the construction of more roads in 1985, levying a half penny to expand the freeway system. By 1996, the focus was beginning to shift to mass transit with 27.7 miles of light rail funding approved. The first 20 miles of a light rail system opens this year.

Valley Metro Rail Inc., formed in 2002 to plan, build and operate the system, represents six cities.

lhalstead@bizjournals.com | 813.342.2467
http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2008/08/11/story2.html?b=1218427200^1681361&t=printable

I love the Mayor stating matter of factly "somewhere has to be first". That is the attitude that will get it done.

[tufsu1]

the problem here is that Mayor Iorio doesn't have much support....the City of Tampa is pretty small in terms of the whole region....in fact, the Hillsborough County Commission ignored a report from a citizens commitee in 1999 that recommended a referendum be placed on the ballot for a 1 cent tax....and then HARTLine's 2002 funding request was taken off the FTA list in 2005....because the local MPO Board (made up of Hillsborough commissioners among others) refused to include light rail in the 2025 MPO plan (even though it was in the previous 2020 plan). 

[thelakelander]

If I were Pinellas County, I'd move forward on my own commuter rail line between Downtown St. Petersburg and Downtown Clearwater.  There's limited industrial uses along that stretch of seldom used CSX rail.  They could probably just buy the thing outright from CSX, prop of some make shift stations and have something up and running pretty quick.  The same goes for Tampa and its seldom used CSX line between Downtown's Union Terminal and the air force base.  When TBARTA gets their act together, then they could work on tying the starter lines together.