Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA)

[Jahi98]

There has been a lot of negativity since the Hillsborough transit tax failed at the polls and HSR funding was returned. The combination of light rail and HSR would have truly catapulted this area to the forefront and changed our economic future in a big way quickly. I guess one could say that it was proof that we had not progressed as much as we had hoped. We could use something big. I am holding out hope that Pinellas will do in 2012 what Hillsborough did not do last year. I think the proposed light rail will touch enough communities to get approval.

[Jasonhouse]

^I don't think any transit plan in Pinellas involving new taxes has a snowball's chance in you know what. My guess is that they would vote for a stadium though. lol

[smiley]

I guess one could say that it was proof that we had not progressed as much as we had hoped.

I would say that the leaders did not lead. That their stated plans were horrible and doomed to failure, that their desire for personal prestige lead them to propose something that was not fully thought out and served very few of the voters. . . basically they screwed up completely. The plans, what little there was, sucked. And Scott killed the poor hsr plan - which was also bad because Bay Area leaders were caught completely offguard by Obama. They are to blame.

[yapp1850]

the only way tampa will have any good transit is when traffic is at gridlock all the day long and it will be cheeper and faster than driving that when the voter will aprove a tax increase by then the damage will have been done.

[gstolze]

I don't agree. I think it was the economic situation and the general fear of the people as well as all the negative propaganda against Obama and anything he would do. It was just bad luck with the timing of the project. I think that in better economic times the plan would have passed.

Another thing I am asking is, why did Charlie Crist not make the HSR plans bullet proof before he left office?

[HARTride 2012]

Transit will not get any better for the next 10 to 20 years. it will take a 10-laned I-4 and I-275 to make people realize how badly we need better transit. By the time things really go about, Rick Scott will have already committed to converting I-4 and I-275 medians into tolled lanes.

[Jahi98]

Originally Posted by gstolze

Another thing I am asking is, why did Charlie Crist not make the HSR plans bullet proof before he left office?

Good question!

[HARTride 2012]

Definitely.

[TPAMAN]

Fast-rail prediction time frame expires
Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Mark Holan
Date: Thursday, June 2, 2011, 1:23pm EDT

Mark Holan
Staff Writer
Email: markholan@bizjournals.com
Former state Sen. Jim Sebesta wants another 90 days.

On March 4 he predicted a private company would announce plans within three months for a maglev (magnetic levitation) rail line between Orlando International Airport and Disney World.

The prediction, aired during a BayNews 9 panel discussion, came in the wake of the Florida Supreme Court ruling to uphold Gov. Rick Scott’s decision to kill the proposed high-speed train between Orlando and Tampa.

“All I can say is there is stuff going on,” Sebesta said this week from his St. Petersburg home. “It is being worked on. Things are happening quietly behind the scenes.”

Sebesta, a former state Senate Transportation Committee chairman, said he is working on the project as a consultant and is bound by a confidentiality agreement.

“Nothing would warm my heart more that to announce to central Florida that it is on the way,” he said. “It’s a real estate development deal, make no mistake about that.”

Talk of a maglev line between Disney and Port Canaveral, where the entertainment and leisure giant operates a cruise ship, has circulated for more than a decade.

Disney’s press office in Orlando could not immediately comment.

Tony Morris, president and CEO of American MagLev Technology Inc., which bid on earlier efforts to bring rapid rail transit to Florida, said his company is not involved in any negotiations.

Maybe Gov. Scott knows something, which may have influenced his decision to kill the bullet train. Orlando is still waiting for the governor’s decision on whether to move forward with SunRail.

Maybe U.S. Rep. John Mica, the Orlando-based chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, figures into the mix.

Maybe we will know more in the next 90 days.

[Jasonhouse]

Why don't they simply extend the Disney monorail?

[HARTride 2012]

Who knows!

[gstolze]

I guess the Disney monorail is too slow and the technology is outdated.

[tampasteve]

The technology could be updated reasonably cheaply, Bombadier still makes monorails - in fact they won the bid to build a line in Sao Paulo. Plus, Disney is only a generation or two back on the train designs, so IIRC they could actually just update the trains for the extension (and maybe some support service, etc.).

The problem is that monorail in America is thought of as a toy and not real transit. Of course this is not true as has been proven in Asia and soon in South America. But having it installed mainly in airports, and the only real revenue line in Las Vegas (and of course the short line in Seattle) at the high cost of a ticket and the bankruptcy does not help the monorail cause.

Steve

[HARTride 2012]

Just everyone watch this next legislative session. I think there will be a good 60% chance that the elimination of TBARTA will pop up on the agenda.

[HARTride 2012]

We could see even more doom and gloom for transit soon.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/opinion/201...lem-ar-236681/

Again, count on the legislature to try to abolish TBARTA, and out right de-fund mass transit in every way possible. Even try to privatize all of the mass transit agencies and sell them off to big conglomorates.

There is also a mention in the article of a move to pass a ban on tax money being used for future transit projects.


This means only one thing....

EVERYONE MUST LEAVE THIS ROTTING STATE ASAP!

[Jasonhouse]

^There is another alternative... Rebel against the system, and specifically go after those who treat this state and its people like their personal plantation.

That's literally the only two choices that will yield productive results. Working within Fl's political system no longer has any chance whatsoever of actually working, because the political system itself is what's broken. People either need to rise up and stand together against the class warriors in the most forceful ways possible, or they should give up on a lost cause and move on before they waste another moment of their lives or their children's lives. Watching it happen and doing nothing only worsens the situation. This is way past a political solution being the answer. We are in an existential crisis and it's getting worse by the day.

[HARTride 2012]

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-ne...enc-ar-250501/

Victor Crist stunned colleagues on the Hillsborough County Commission and the county's aviation authority when he proposed cooperative efforts among the area's seaports and airports that typically compete.

"We need to take a look at how we could benefit the region by thinking differently and cooperatively," Crist said this year. "The only obstacle would be those who want to hold on to their power.

"We must take baby steps," he said, proposing discussion of cooperative, regional prospects before endorsing changes to how things are run today.

Crist is in front of elected officials and program managers who generally are reluctant to discuss the politically sensitive topic of rearranging their turf and operations.

Managers point to competitive realities that elected officials create.

But political and fiscal realities require leaders to change the way they think, said Ronnie Duncan, chairman of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority. "The world is different today than yesterday," Duncan said. "Congress is debating the nation's budget, and the House already has made clear that less federal money will be available for transportation projects than in recent years.

"All of us from Tampa Bay to California are going to have to do things differently, and that's not a bad thing.

"What happens in Pinellas stays in Pinellas; what happens in Hillsborough stays in Hillsborough, but that has to change. We have to have those kinds of (regional) discussions."

Some regional initiatives have been in place for years, such as the Tampa Bay Partnership, which oversees economic development opportunities for eight counties.

The Pinellas and Hillsborough visitors' bureaus share some marketing initiatives, and the county's two transit systems purchase buses and equipment under joint contracts to save money.

In 2007, the state Legislature created TBARTA to develop and implement transportation plans in seven counties. But Gov. Rick Scott in May vetoed the re-appropriation of $950,000 to support TBARTA – about 25 percent of its annual budget.

Duncan said TBARTA's regional mission is needed more than ever, and a new budget will be crafted this month to go into effect in October. "What TBARTA brings is the ability to have a regional discussion," Duncan said.

Its 16 board members are from a 6,000-square-mile area that encompasses two Florida Department of Transportation districts, two highway toll authorities, three regional planning councils, five metropolitan planning organizations, seven transit service operators and 42 cities.

But it's the need to trim costs that appears to be driving discussions of regional cooperation.

Republican state Sen. Jack Latvala of St. Petersburg, chairman of the Florida Senate Transportation Committee, this year began exploring how the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority might be combined.

Latvala is scheduled to address HART on the issue this month.

"The push for regional plans for transit is becoming a nationwide topic," said Alison Hewitt, HART board chairwoman, citing initiatives in the Atlanta and Washington-Arlington, Va., areas among those at the forefront. "But we have to be careful we don't lose service for our patrons in the quest to combine services."

Every opportunity to work more closely on a regional basis raises potential problems that must be sorted out, in particular who wins, who loses, who pays, who gains.

[Jasonhouse]

Every opportunity to work more closely on a regional basis raises potential problems that must be sorted out, in particular who wins, who loses, who pays, who gains.

Or in other words, NOTHING will change. Area residents aren't capable of doing better, else we would already be doing better.

[HARTride 2012]

Just watch when Scott starts pushing privatization down everyone's throats when it coms to transit. It will happen...sadly...