What About A Jacksonville Monorail System?

[Ocklawaha]

Unfinished way to keep buses out of downtown...

Yes, I know the Skyway was rebuilt into a monorail system after the people-mover idea fell flat on it's face. Of course changing the track and vehicles did nothing for the ridership. We have to wonder what it will do for buses to change the "track or road" and the "vehicle type of buses," with BRT?


Tiny monorail train can't deal with crowds if it had them...

I started looking at the monorail system in Jacksonville and came up with some ideas. If it were expanded into the Stadium (at Randolph), San Marco (at Atlantic and the FEC) and Riverside (at Francis Lytle) what would it look like? What would the numbers be?


Las Vegas new "trainsit size" monorail system...

The first issue of concern is that we have a half of a monorail system. This is equal to building I-95 North to the Trout River but not across it. As long as it falls short of the critical connection points with the bus system, and as long as JTA resists transfers, it will be stillborn. A new track could be laid without too much trouble, even using the single beam and catwalk system some monorails have employed. Several have questioned why JTA insisted on going with the huge platform in the air, and as it turns out, that might be a perfect choice. With any fully automated transit link, the monorails have a higher then usual down time. If that breakdown comes while you are half way to your destination, the extra concrete is an escape walkway.


Private Monorail in Tokyo, connects resorts and villas to Disney's, "The Happy Place".

So even if we use the current system, we could quickly extend it down Bay to Randolph and up Randolph to the Arlington Expressway. At the expressway we would need the "Mother of all garages" and a bus/trolley/monorail transfer facility. Stations at or near Berkman Plaza/Shipyards and another at about Newnan Street would enhance the accessability.


A photo of Rosa Parks Skyway/Bus transfer station should be our "model" for the future...

Extension Southward over I-95 to a Station at Kings Avenue Hotel complex would be another plus, hence continue South along the west side of the FEC railroad, to Atlantic where a Bus/Rail/Monorail station could be built. Some sort of ramps to and from I-95 South would greatly enhance such a station and make it very useful as a park-n-ride facility.


Indianapolis has it's own system something between ours and Las Vegas...

Extension South through Brooklyn Park and a new Station near the Times-Union, hence South to Fidelity and turning West to Francis Lytle School Transit Center. Here another complete station facility could be built with transfers to trolley/bus/monorail and a pedestrian walk across the park to 5-Points.


Francis Lytle transit center from the air...

Such a system would need improved capacity. Currently the whole system comes in at little over 1,000 persons per hour. If we extended the trains to a more monorail friendly 4 cars, we could double the capacity. Further, if we added more trains and closed the headways to 1 minute during game day or rush hour, we could bump it up to perhaps 10,000 per hour. Our equipment needs to be expanded and rebuilt, and we need to be looking at a regular monorail transit train set, for each line.


Lot's of room in Tokyo...

Ocklawaha