Tampa Bay's transit future: Light rail's out. Rapid buses are in.
Watch out, Tampa Bay: light rail is out, and buses are in. For now, anyway. Transit leaders appear ready to scrap their dream of building a light rail line connecting Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties in favor of a bus rapid transit system that would run alongside Interstate 275 from Wesley Chapel to Tampa to St.
From article, ("I think the idea is to get vehicles that don’t look like your standard bus, that have more of a rail feel to them, but the technology is still rubber tire," Kriseman said. "So you’re kind of combining the feel of rail with the cost and flexibility of BRT."
That system would ideally be able to accommodate autonomous vehicle technology in the future. However, those details and many others, including the cost to build and maintain such a system, are still being worked out.
Transit leaders appear ready to scrap their dream of building a light rail line connecting Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties in favor of a bus rapid transit system that would run alongside Interstate 275 from Wesley Chapel to Tampa to St. Petersburg.
Also known as BRT, the plan to bring that form of transit to the bay area is being drawn up by Jacobs Engineering, which was hired to conduct a regional study of premium transit options that can one day become a reality.
But while the specifics are still unknown, it’s becoming more clear that an enhanced bus system, not a rail line, will likely be the first major regional transit project that Tampa Bay leaders pursue.
"The numbers don’t lie," Buckhorn said. "When you look at the cost and the ridership numbers and the likelihood of state and federal matches, I think it made a lot of sense."
Buckhorn has long been a proponent of rail, particularly connecting urban areas, but said he wasn’t interested in waiting any longer while people continued to debate the merits of a light rail line.)
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