Is U2C serious? Help me make it make sense....

[jaxlongtimer]

^ LOL, I guess they figure Downtown will be dead on New Years Eve given they are closing at 3 PM.  The lack of common sense and collaboration in this City is beyond the pale.  And, we wonder why no one can make it Downtown.  Imagine NYC shutting down the subways like this, would Times Square be what it is on 12/31 eve?

[thelakelander]

What's the hours on the 27th? The Gator Bowl is at 5:30pm. Are they still closing the Skyway despite hundreds of hotel rooms in the Southbank needing access to the Northbank restaurants and entertainment venues?

[marcuscnelson]

^ I don't see any indication that the Skyway or NAVI will be running on the 27th. The Gameday Xpress buses will be available for the Gator Bowl.

[Ken_FSU]

What can we, as citizens, do to force a change in leadership for JTA? What's the best avenue? This is quite literally the city's transportation future being pissed away on a vanity project, serving no existing transportation need, that is already duplicative of what the private sector is doing better and cheaper. The only goal I hear from the JTA is "making Jacksonville a leader in the autonomous space." How does this goal relate to the JTA end-user in need of reliable, cost-efficient transportation around the city?

[Charles Hunter]

Convince the Governor to appoint U2C opponents to the JTA Boatrd. I think he has 2 vacancies.
Lobby City Cuncil members to join Diamond's opposition.
Join the North Florida TPO's Citizens Advisory Committee. Negative votes from the CAC might make an impression on the TPO Board, or on City Council.
Write Letters to the Editor of the various news outlets.

[fsu813]

Convince the Governor to appoint U2C opponents to the JTA Boatrd. I think he has 2 vacancies.
Lobby City Cuncil members to join Diamond's opposition.
Join the North Florida TPO's Citizens Advisory Committee. Negative votes from the CAC might make an impression on the TPO Board, or on City Council.
Write Letters to the Editor of the various news outlets.

Or speak publicly about concerns at JTA board and City Council meetings. The amount of public criticism the U2C receives at public JTA board meetings and public City Council meetings is microscopic. Public comment doesn't make things happen, but it creates awareness, sparks media coverage, emphasizes accountability, and can be used as justification for those in decision making roles to take action. This online forum has more intelligent, credible people making arguments against the U2C than any public forum to date.

[marcuscnelson]

Saw this tweet yesterday of Vikings fans aboard the Minneapolis light rail. This is what Metro in Minneapolis has to say about their transit options for football games. No need to run an entirely separate gameday service.

Can't help but think about the difference in mentality (even knowing the Twin Cities are a larger market now) to see that they made the choice to invest in building fixed guideway transit and reshape their region. In the late 1990s, when they decided to move ahead with that, their region wasn't much larger than ours is now. Let beyond very limited lip service, it seems much of the mentality among our leadership is that it is impossible to build such transit despite the continued growth along the First Coast.

Meanwhile, the Skyway and NAVI weren't running yesterday, and our $140 million BRT system appears to do little to serve these visitors, hence the Gameday Express buses pressed into service. What does that say about Jacksonville? About JTA?

[jcjohnpaint]

Isn't Minneapolis closing one of their lines?

[marcuscnelson]

^They closed their commuter rail line yesterday (which was incredibly infrequent and subject to a litany of weird contractual obligations by its host freight railroad). The light rail system remains and is growing.

If anything it goes to show that if you're going to invest in transit, especially now after the pandemic and changed travel patterns, you have to invest in reliable, frequent, all-day service, because 9-5 won't cut it for ridership. But again, they also had a lot of weird limitations regarding operating practices imposed by the freight railroad that likely wouldn't be the case elsewhere.

[Ken_FSU]

The U2C, in its limited run, is already in the red $7 million in terms of operational costs.

Meanwhile, JTA went from operating a $4 million surplus in Q1-Q3, to running a nearly $20 million deficit by end of their fiscal year.

Only 819 people rode the NAVI in November. Even with what is surely an inflated number, that's roughly 2 passengers per hour.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2026/jan/07/jta-fare-cuts-came-amid-budget-shortfall-lower-navi-ridership/

Leadership needs to go, further expansion of NAVI needs to be mothballed in the interim, and gas tax dollars for U2C should be funneled into the Emerald Trail until we've got a better plan for transit, which is going to take a minute to do properly.

[marcuscnelson]

Mass transit, like most transportation infrastructure, isn't really meant to be profitable per se, but the goal is generally that you get some kind of return on that investment. Ridership, directly attributable economic development, enhancement of the city or region's image, that sort of thing.

NAVI produces none of that. The way in which JTA chose to develop it for "innovation" makes it inherently poor at serving as a transit service, it doesn't appeal to people who need or want to use transit, it certainly isn't dependable or significant enough to financially justify transit-oriented development, and it's a laughingstock of public sector transportation leadership that makes Jacksonville look completely unserious about transit (which, well, it is). Cutting fares won't fix those problems or attract nearly enough ridership to justify Nat Ford having taken everyone down this road.

I also just checked the JTA website, and found this:

NAVI SERVICE UPDATE – TEMPORARY STATION CLOSURES
Due to ongoing construction downtown, four NAVI stations will be temporarily closed for approximately 6–8 months beginning Monday, January 5, 2026. One fixed route bus stop downtown will begin NAVI service. During this time, the NAVI service route will be detoured to safely accommodate construction activity while maintaining service.

Temporarily Closed NAVI Stations:

• Riverfront Plaza Station
• Gator Bowl Blvd. & A.P. Randolph Blvd. Station
• Gator Bowl Blvd. Eastbound Station (Four Seasons Resort)
• Gator Bowl Blvd. Westbound Station (EverBank Stadium Parking Lot)

New Temporary NAVI Stop:

• Station 6193, Forsyth St. & Ocean St.

Please review the updated NAVI Service System Map shown below for current routing and service adjustments. We appreciate your patience and cooperation. Thank you for riding with the JTA as we continue building a stronger, safer, more connected Downtown Jacksonville.

$66 million and $7 million per year later, and about a third of the stations are now gone for an undetermined number of months. Getting into a deficit now is concerning, there is not going to be a public appetite to bail out an agency that has treated the public as JTA has.

Leadership needs to go, further expansion of NAVI needs to be mothballed in the interim, and gas tax dollars for U2C should be funneled into the Emerald Trail until we've got a better plan for transit, which is going to take a minute to do properly.

Largely agree, but I would not put the entire $247 million into the Emerald Trail, as much as I do believe it's a worthwhile investment. There are enough other obvious transit needs. Since the First Coast Flyer will have to be our "rapid transit" for the foreseeable future, investing in improving it (and probably also in running better service throughout) would be worth at least some of that money. Dedicating a portion to bringing Amtrak downtown is also worthwhile. Finally, the planning work of what to do next costs money, and because we'd be starting from scratch after cleaning house at JTA, being able to afford those planners will be key.

[Joey Mackey]

^Glass half full: Getting rid of the Gator Bowl Blvd stops should improve Ken's morning commute.

[Ken_FSU]

^Glass half full: Getting rid of the Gator Bowl Blvd stops should improve Ken's morning commute.

DUDE, I was legit wondering when I came into the office yesterday after the holidays why I didn't hear the terrifying squeals of drivers slamming on their breaks as the exited the Hart Bridge, trying to avoid running over a NAVI.

Thanks for the update, Marcus!

New map is almost comical.

If someone told me that the $70 million Bay Street Innovation Corridor was being to launder money, I would completely believe it.

Also totally agree with you. Do not think the full U2C budget should go into the Emerald Trail, but I do think the gas tax dollars that come in annually should be used to backfill some of that lost grant while Jacksonville figures out what a sane, logical transit plan looks like over the rest of the gas tax's life.

[jaxlongtimer]

In looking at this map, I don't see any traffic generating stops east of Market during its daytime operating hours.  And, west of Market, I could walk that as fast or faster probably than a NAVI.  So, I look forward to ridership dropping to zero plus the paid JTA employees forced to use it  .

How many one-mile Uber rides could we get for $7 million?  Waymo rides? The insanity continues....

P.S. Does the $7 million operating loss include the time value (i.e. interest) of the $70 million already spent?  Or, depreciation on the vehicles?  or the JTA administrative overhead allocable to U2C?  I am betting the financial status is even worse than the published number.

[Charles Hunter]

Well, the "temporary" route will eliminate the "dangerous U-Turn" on Bay Street at the foot of the Hart ramps.

Not knowing how long the "temporary" route will be in effect. But, with the reasons JTA gives for the detour, it seems it will be a lengthy route change. The new route circumnavigates VyStar Ballpark. The Jumbo Shrimp begin playing ball again on March 27. They do have occasional day games during the week. Will NAVI be able to navigate the increased auto and pedestrian traffic?