Ten Reasons to Opposes JTA's Transit Plan

[Metro Jacksonville]

Ten Reasons to Opposes JTA's Transit Plan



Here are ten reasons why you should have serious concerns about JTA's proposed Bus Rapid Transit system.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/661

[NJ to JAX WHAT DID I DO?]

This BRT idea almost makes me sick.  As I meet more and more educated long-time Jax residents, I hear more and more the term "backwards" to describe Jax.  This BRT idea proves to me why the term "backwards" is used so often. 

[wjpratt01]

   Would never happen, first of all CSX is a Union Operated and run Rail Industry, FEC or Florida East Coast, has already staged against any trins carrying the "Public" as banned. Amtrack has made many attempts to run down the East Coast Railroad, to connect Daytona Beach with Jacksonville, without having to run down the Seaboard CSX lines... only to find stalled talks.

  Jacksonville's traffic problem isn't a problem to many Govt. Officials or other City Committee officials either. We all tend to foget that it was the Florida's Public Vote that voted in "High-Speed Rail" using the ICE Monies already in play in the State of Florida's DOT, However, This Gov. is too, trying to find a way around that as well, when in fact, he can not. The law makers have strict language for what the ICE-T money "Can" and Cannot" be used for....so, it'll be a long time before you hear of that one...

  So, no, it'll never happen in the City of Jacksonville, another dead issue... what do ya think this is ? Boston??? Atlanta??? New York??? Chicago??? and so forth and so on ... this is Jacksonville, barely over a Million people... get real!

[Ocklawaha]

Would never happen, first of all CSX is a Union Operated and run Rail Industry, FEC or Florida East Coast, has already staged against any trins carrying the "Public" as banned.

This should serve to show that THIS plan is already in the works!

FALSE: The Florida East Coast is very open to adding Amtrak or any other trains to their routes. They will need some capacity improvements and some signal changes and an overpass or two to make it happen. If you want to know where these improvements are needed just ask me.

Amtrack has made many attempts to run down the East Coast Railroad, to connect Daytona Beach with Jacksonville, without having to run down the Seaboard CSX lines... only to find stalled talks.

FALSE: The attempts were made all right, but Amtrak expansion was frozen at the Federal Level just as Florida, Jeb Bush and the FEC finally had EVERY DETAIL worked out. In fact the trains were already scheduled, when President Bush tried to kill Amtak and zero it's budget. FEC was left as a onlooker to a crazy federal game and had NOTHING to do with killing that service.


Albuquerque's vision, followed by REALITY... Funny, looks like North Main Street in Jacksonville doesn't it?

  Jacksonville's traffic problem isn't a problem to many Govt. Officials or other City Committee officials either. We all tend to foget that it was the Florida's Public Vote that voted in "High-Speed Rail" using the ICE Monies already in play in the State of Florida's DOT, However, This Gov. is too, trying to find a way around that as well, when in fact, he can not. The law makers have strict language for what the ICE-T money "Can" and Cannot" be used for....so, it'll be a long time before you hear of that one...

FALSE: The new ICETEA funding, can be used for urban transit improvements, which can include such things as Intermodal Terminals. Our old Jacksonville Terminal could be completely rebuilt into a World Class Transit station, indluding the Buses, Greyhound, Skyway, and Commuter or Light Rail, without spending a penny of FTA grant money... Interesting prospect. Toss in some FTA or other federal money or just local funds and there would be no end to what this could do.

So, no, it'll never happen in the City of Jacksonville, another dead issue... what do ya think this is ? Boston??? Atlanta??? New York??? Chicago??? and so forth and so on ... this is Jacksonville, barely over a Million people... get real!

WEIRD: No we are not Boston, New York or Chicago. Our City is larger then the City of Atlanta. We are also not Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Kenosha, Little Rock, Memphis, New Orleans, Charlotte, Fort Collins, Tacoma, San Francisco, El Reno, Tampa, San Jose, Sacramento, Cleveland, Buffalo, St. Louis, Fort Smith, Issaquah, or Kennebunkport, in fact we are much larger then most of these, much more dense, and much more built up and spread out all along our railroad lines... You are obviously suffering from inhaling the sulfur from far too many JTA buses...

BTW, this is my business, I'm a transportation planner, welcome to my world.

Ocklawaha

[thelakelander]

Would never happen, first of all CSX is a Union Operated and run Rail Industry, FEC or Florida East Coast, has already staged against any trins carrying the "Public" as banned.

If you're serious, read these two articles and tell everyone again why CSX will never allow another entity to possibly purchase a segment of rail to use for passenger purposes.

CSX shifts its freight traffic for growth
The move will bypass a Central Florida commuter rail system expected in 2010
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/120407/bus_222530777.shtml

The Rail Option
"JTA project manager James Boyle is skeptical. He says CSX told him it might be able to spare one of its two parallel tracks that run from downtown to Orange Park.

But, at this point, it doesn't have enough extra capacity to give up the line that runs from the airport to downtown. Likewise, Florida East Coast Railway says it cannot give up the line running south of downtown, which it owns.

Both indicated they could work out a deal for the right of way if JTA wants to build its own parallel tracks.

Boyle doesn't know how much this would cost, but he's in ongoing communications about it."
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/110107/opi_213836605.shtml

Its definately possible and the precedence has been set many times, including twice in Florida.  The best way for it not to happen is for Jacksonville to ignore the opportunity.

Jacksonville's traffic problem isn't a problem to many Govt. Officials or other City Committee officials either.

If this was truly the case, this discussion about spending a billion dollars on BRT would not be going on right now and traffic on JTB, Blanding and Beach (and others) would flow smoothly on a 24/7 basis.  If it were not really an issue, then you would be saying to whole basis of these recent articles are nothing more than lies.

The worst commute hits the road in Clay
"Clay County's 33.4-minute commute tops the national average by more than eight minutes and is about two minutes longer than Florida's second-place county, Osceola, south of Orlando."
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102507/met_211753842.shtml

First Coast traffic: Worse than average
"Well, as you're stuck in traffic, start adding up the minutes: Over the course of a year, according to a highly anticipated study released Tuesday, Jacksonville drivers will spend 39 hours stuck in traffic.

That put First Coast congestion a bit above the national average of 38 hours a year, according to the study by the Texas Transportation Institute of 2005 data, the most recent available. Jacksonville was ranked 29th, tied with bigger areas like Las Vegas and San Antonio.

And Jacksonville is seeing much faster growth in the length of delays than the national average, the study said: Just to maintain a constant level of congestion as the population grows, Jacksonville would need to add 65 miles of lanes to its highways."
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/091907/met_200796548.shtml

So, no, it'll never happen in the City of Jacksonville, another dead issue... what do ya think this is ? Boston??? Atlanta??? New York??? Chicago??? and so forth and so on ... this is Jacksonville, barely over a Million people... get real!

Making an argument for not doing anything because we're smaller than Chicago is like saying Michael Vick is a good role model because he only killed dogs, while Jeffrey Domer killed people AND ate them.  Btw, other urban areas barely over a million (some under) with various forms of rail include Buffalo, Charlotte, Nashsville, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque.  The difference between them and the Chicagos, NYCs, San Franciscos, Atlantas, etc. of the world is that they don't have "heavy" rail, which is a completely different topic altogether. 

So let's get real and seriously look at what we're setting ourselves up with for the future.

[zoo]

Why isn't JTA open to compromise? They can put BRT from intermodal hub by Prime Osborn up to State and Union and out to Arlington, Regency, and as far out to the Beaches as those on either side of the ditch will let them. Then use commuter rail to go the distances north, south and southwest. There. Was that so hard?

[thelakelander]

According to JTA in the TU article, we're all amateurs who are unaware of political realities, particularly when it comes down to paying for a multi-million dollar transit system. 

How would you like to be paid a decent salary and called a professional in your field, only to be shown up by a band of misfits, who have no problem telling you in public, your hard work blows bigtime?

In this case, a compromise, possibly losing some BRT funding and a wasted seven years of work could cost some people their jobs.  This is probably a major reason why the public will continue to be blown off without a huge uniform outcry.

[Ocklawaha]

According to JTA in the TU article, we're all amateurs who are unaware of political realities, particularly when it comes down to paying for a multi-million dollar transit system.

This is funny! I didn't realize the paper labeled us as such... Care to take roll?

As I count it:

One Professional Urban Planner
One Retired Transportation Planner
One Active Jr. Transportation Exec.
One IT professional dealing with mass public
One Professional Restaurant/Entertainment Complex Owner
One City Councilwoman
One Attorney with PAC background
One Attorney with Municipal Background
One General Building Contractor
One Political Party Chairman

plus:

Two volunteer International Railroad Contractors, builders, operators...

While not all of us are 100% within Metro-Jacksonville.com, we all know eachother and more then work together. We are a hell of a team, one that JTA would be so lucky to have. The media needs to get this right, a bunch of foamer's chasing trains we are NOT!  

Ocklawaha ROFL!  

[thelakelander]

There are a lot more not mentioned that have more experience in a variety of fields than anything the professionals who blessed us with the skyway and a bridge that may hamper port growth because its too short, can muster up.  Perhaps, this is why its easier for this band of political misfits to recognize the importance of transit from a community planning and integration standpoint, as opposed to only moving buses from point A to B.