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Politics & Government

Transit Leaders Talk Rail in Pinellas

Will voters support light rail and expanded buses in Pinellas County?

The cost, and who will pay it, was a big question residents had for officials at an online town hall regarding a plan to bring light passenger rail to Pinellas. 

Wednesday’s meeting was the fourth of its kind. The remote town hall featured four local transit officials fielding questions from key stakeholders, Pinellas County residents.

Participants – some of them randomly selected – had a chance to ask questions by phone or through the Internet.

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The questions revolved around the county’s tentative plan to substantially fortify its public transportation system. A key aspect of this proposed multi-decade overhaul is light rail.

“We're really just going back to where we started from," said St. Petersburg City Council memberJeff Danner, referring to the area’s reliance on streetcars in the early days. Danner also serves as a member of the Pinellas group looking to expand the county's transportation system. 

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Pinellas On Track is a consortium of members from various county planning and transportation boards including the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, the Metropolitan Planning Organzition, Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and the Florida Department of Transportation. The group is working on a locally preferred alternative route and plan to bring light rail to the area. 

Of course, Pinellas County has since become one of the most densely populated areas of the state. Officials are hoping rail and a vastly expanded bus system will help ease congestion along major Pinellas thoroughfares.

"Right now you're pretty much restricted to either driving your car or taking the bus," said Indian Rocks Beach Mayor RB Johnson.

The county has mapped out its future transit plan in its alternatives analysis, a study that’s required before the county can get any federal matching dollars. The analysis places light rail along two corridors – the ones connecting Downtown Clearwater and St. Pete to the Greater Gateway area.

Downtown Clearwater would link to Gateway via Alt. 19 and Largo’s East Bay Drive. Rail would connect Gateway and Downtown St. Pete via the I-275 corridor.

“A lot of things are sort of spread out like peanut butter in Pinellas County,” Johnson said.

Panel members said they hope rail will encourage more compact residential development that’s clustered around rail stops – something they say would spur job growth.

Some citizens had questions about money. Johnson said there’s no simple answer.

"The funding's going to come from multiple sources," he said, including local, state, and federal governments as well as private investors.

Local dollars, he said, would constitute half of the project’s budget, which the county would likely raise through a penny sales tax, which Pinellas voters would have to approve.

In neighboring Hillsborough County, voters rejected a similar ballot measure in November 2010, a time when the political climate didn’t bode well for any initiative that involved raising taxes.

Pinellas officials have said they’re taking the process a little more slowly, and making sure they present the full picture to voters before the question gets to the ballot.

One questioner wondered whether a Pinellas ballot initiative to fund transit would go anywhere, given the fate of Hillsborough’s.

"The answer is no," said Bob Clifford, executive director of Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority.

Danner said the Pinellas project would take decades to come to fruition, though residents would begin to see changes much sooner.

"Almost immediately you would see an improved bus system," he said.

This might mean that buses run every 20 minutes instead of every half-hour, or that they serve entertainment-rich areas like Downtown St. Petersburg much later into the evening.

The panel stressed that the transit overhaul wouldn’t be about forcing people to live differently; it’s more of a way to deal with challenges like congestion and the often high cost of commuting.

"This project is about providing alternatives," said Sarah Ward, interim director of the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization. "Gasoline costs continue to go up."

Check out the county’s proposal at www.pinellasontrack.com.

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