JTA meetings on the future of the Skyway

[jcjohnpaint]

Looks like public comment in Times Union is much more intelligent and informed than in the past. A lot of comments on extending to Brooklyn. More desire for fixed rail, etc.

[Ken_FSU]

Looks like public comment in Times Union is much more intelligent and informed than in the past. A lot of comments on extending to Brooklyn. More desire for fixed rail, etc.

As opposed to News4Jax, where the comment section undoubtedly blames the Skyway's mechanical end-of-life on transgender bathrooms and the general existence of blacks and Latinos.

[Nmhatt]

I asked someone about this at the feedback meetings when I was there, but how much weight do the community responses actually have? Could JTA just ignore the results and do what they always planned to (converting the track for NAVI), or are they bound in some way by the outcome of the feedback? Something tells me that even if the results are between larger vehicles and a walking track that neither of those will actually end up happening.

I think my last post on this thread got lost in the shuffle a bit. So, I want to give another opportunity for this question to be answered. Does anyone have insight on this?

[Charles Hunter]

There is, so far as I know, no LEGAL requirement that JTA implement the option supported by the majority of the public attending their meetings. They may face political fall-out if that happens. But, given the history of Council and the Mayor taking a hands-off approach to JTA's decisions, I doubt anything will happen.

[jaxlongtimer]

If JTA cared about the public interests, we would have more robust and reliable bus service, more urban core MASS transit, laying the groundwork for future fixed rail of some sort and less chasing rainbow projects like U2C that pull massive amounts of funding, energy and political capital away from the better projects for the sole purpose of massaging JTA egos and careers.

With a an unquestioning and subservient-to-CEO rubber stamp board not exercising its oversight responsibilities, don't count on JTA changing direction.

[jaxlongtimer]

JTA isn't attracting riders, even with high gas prices and lower or no fares... maybe because it isn't providing service levels (e.g. frequency, time of day, routing, connectivity, reliability, # of routes, etc.) needed to attract more customers?  $400 million would go a long way to improving bus transit for tens of thousands.  Meanwhile, NAVI running at 49 riders a day... how many are JTA or City officials? Cost per passenger mile?

Money losing and wasting JTA is more and more appearing to be an agency on the ropes... Is change blowing in the wind?

Year-over-year ridership down through two months of JTA fare pilot
Despite cutting fares as much as 55%, JTA reported decreases of 27,042 and 15,272 in February and March, respectively.

Despite cutting fares to try to drive up ridership, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority has seen lower year-over-year demand for its services two months into a fare-reduction pilot program.

Ridership on fixed routes with reduced fares in the pilot fell in February and March 2026 by about 18.3% (27,042) and 10% (15,272), respectively, compared with the same periods in 2025, according to ridership data provided to the Daily Record.

Rate cuts from the JTA on non-NAVI vehicles began Feb. 1, 2026. The reduced rates are scheduled to run through July 30. JTA cut rates as little as 6% to as much as 55%.

NAVI is JTA's Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Innovation service, which operates on a 3.5-mile route in Downtown, mostly along Bay Street.

NAVI fares were eliminated Dec. 15, cut from the $1.75 fare JTA had charged since Oct. 1, 2025. NAVI vans began service, initially without fares, in July 2025.

NAVI ridership has fluctuated since fares were eliminated. JTA reported 447 riders on NAVI in December, followed by 1,065, 1,385 and 1,075 riders in January, February and March, respectively.

In March, NAVI use averaged about 49 riders daily. JTA has pledged that by 2035, NAVI would average 280 riders daily.

Including showing a year-over-year drop, February and March 2026 non-NAVI ridership fell compared to almost all of 2025 data. February's total ridership of 120,861 was lower than each of the 13 months before the fare-reduction pilot, while March's total of 138,720 was lower than all months other than November and December 2025, and January 2026.

In explaining the pilot, JTA said it expected ridership to increase as a result of lower fares...

...Ridership figures provided to the Daily Record did not show how much revenue JTA has lost from decreasing ridership.JTA did not respond to questions about how much revenue decreased from the pilot program and an explanation for decreased ridership....

...Passenger fares trended under expectations by $1.03 million, sales tax revenue underperformed by $10.85 million, and interest earnings underperformed by $2.31 million, Ford said...

...JTA's fare-reduction pilot came after JTA recorded an $18.99 million budget shortfall in its fiscal year 2025 budget, a Jacksonville City Council auditor's report showed in January...

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2026/apr/13/year-over-year-ridership-down-through-two-months-of-jta-fare-pilot/

[Nmhatt]

In March, NAVI use averaged about 49 riders daily. JTA has pledged that by 2035, NAVI would average 280 riders daily.

This is a comedically low bar to pass. That should be a year one goal not a decade from now (and 400mil) goal.

[Jax_Developer]

We live in a society where you can quite literally waste Hundreds of Millions of Dollars without any accountability. Nobody in town really knows about this program or what's going on. All by design. The CA High Speed Rail, or the EV Charger Act with countless more for example.

It's why countries like China have exceeded the US in every category possible when it comes to infrastructure in less than 30 years time. Programs like the U2C scattered across the country. Depressing really.

[marcuscnelson]

Per a "Skyway Service Update," JTA appears to have announced that they are down to their last train, serving "all station until further notice."

https://www.jtafla.com/media-center/service-alerts/skyway-service-update/

[jaxlongtimer]

Per a "Skyway Service Update," JTA appears to have announced that they are down to their last train, serving "all station until further notice."

https://www.jtafla.com/media-center/service-alerts/skyway-service-update/

No worries, U2C to the rescue! NOT!  Imagine the Skyway completely shut down for years while we wait for... nothing!  Mimicking the unused rail that became the Highline in NYC, watch as weeds and vegetation begin making a home on the track.  When the growth gets noticeable, and no viable transit options are forthcoming, a move will occur to convert the track to a pedestrian path... .  History will have been repeated.

This will be the result of wasting not just dollars, but time, chasing rainbows instead of doing proven, cost effective, simple solutions.

[thelakelander]

Per a "Skyway Service Update," JTA appears to have announced that they are down to their last train, serving "all station until further notice."

https://www.jtafla.com/media-center/service-alerts/skyway-service-update/

We're watching demolition by neglect in slow motion. Jax/JTA should be ashamed in its inability to provide basic maintenance of existing transit services (this includes replacing or rehabilitating aging vehicle fleets).

[Nmhatt]

Per a "Skyway Service Update," JTA appears to have announced that they are down to their last train, serving "all station until further notice."

https://www.jtafla.com/media-center/service-alerts/skyway-service-update/

We're watching demolition by neglect in slow motion. Jax/JTA should be ashamed in its inability to provide basic maintenance of existing transit services (this includes replacing or rehabilitating aging vehicle fleets).

I can't wait for JTA to use 'declining ridership numbers' as a justification for retiring the skyway when their neglect is what caused that decline. Obviously, the decline of DT in the last several decades would also be to blame but I'm sure you get what I mean. I have tried to use the skyway a few times since moving closer to DT and each time it's "the train is late", "train doesn't run on the weekend", "the station is closed because it's the day before a holiday". Those are all things they can fix and aren't.   

[thelakelander]

The Skyway still has more daily riders than NAVI will generate 20 years from now, lol.

The Skyway's ridership numbers have had nothing to do with downtown's health since the Southbank extension was completed in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

It can only operate as good as it operator allows. Not maintaining ridership quality, cleanliness, and reliability is enough to kill or limit the growth of anything. Hard to talk about future, technology, etc. when you fail to maintain the rolling stock and the basic amenities you already have.

[jaxoNOLE]

What is the likelihood at this point that sheer neglect results in termination of service, thus triggering a federal payback regardless of the planned "replacement"?


It's almost as if ELEVEN YEARS AGO, a technology that actually existed should have been pursued to maintain, modernize, and potentially expand the Skyway.

[jaxlongtimer]

At this point, I wonder if JTA is in a downward spiral in can't get out of.  With budget deficits, declining revenue and passengers and wasteful spending of the dollars it does have on the U2C, where is JTA going to find the resources to dig out?  Only if the U2C dollars are redirected ASAP toward building up the existing bus system and (although I don't agree on the merits) the Skyway as advocated by Ennis, will there be a chance for improvement.

As long as U2C stays alive, it will both divert dollars and public support away from JTA's real mission of MASS transit.

I won't be surprised if Ford uses the predicted survey results to save face and serve as a cover for JTA to say it will kill U2C by public demand, not because there hand was forced and it can no longer afford to pursue a wasteful, poorly conceived, pie-in-the-sky, unfeasible project that JTA should never have embarked upon.