JTA developing its own commuter rail plans
While Florida’s deal with CSX on an Orlando commuter rail system is stymied for the moment, in the northeastern segment of the state, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) is quietly developing its own future commuter rail plans.
JTA is wrapping up a feasibility study that will offer Florida’s First Coast one of three corridors through which to run a commuter system serving thousands of riders each day, according to JTA project manager James Boyle.
The findings of the feasibility study should be finalized within the next few months. Jacksonville will then decide which of three corridors to further develop. In the next step, an alternative alignment study which will map out more details.
Boyle says the $400,000 study (being performed by Gannett Fleming) is looking at where rail service could go by using some existing rail lines owned by the private companies CSX, Norfolk Southern and Florida East Coast Railway.
Some of the corridors under study involve using active track and some using abandoned or inactive track. JTA Executive Director Michael Blaylock says it’s possible that JTA may eventually put down extra tracks for commuter rail in areas where the existing train tracks don’t go.
Reaction to commuter rail has been largely positive in the community, according to Boyle.
Presently under study are: the 38 miles from downtown Jacksonville to St. Augustine; 30 miles from downtown to the Green Cove area; and the 22 miles from downtown Jacksonville to Eulee.
The JTA consultants have looked at not only how many riders are expected for each corridor; it has looked at some 28 proposed stops and how commuter rail systems are funded and operating around the country.
The study team is also looking at one or more consolidated station sites in the downtown area with proximity to employment centers, available properties and locations that easily interface with other transit facilities or systems.
Other issues include cost effectiveness, parking availability and how to arrange train stations in a way that would shave time for commuters who otherwise would be driving.
“We’re looking at everything we can think of and trying to look ‘outside the box’ as well,” explained Boyle. “And we know we’re going to have to find innovative ways to finance a system.”
“If we don’t plan now and start putting the stakes in the ground, we’ll never be able to afford it when we need it,” offered Blaylock. Gannett Fleming is also identifying potential funding sources to cover both capital costs and operating costs, but a total cost estimate for the system is not yet available. Boyle says that issue will be determined in the follow up alternative alignment study.
According to Blaylock, once the feasibility has been determined and an alternative alignment selected, in addition to state and federal funding, he will investigate public-private partnerships, such as leasing the trains as dinner cars during off-peak hours, to help get the system running sooner.
There are around two dozen proposed commuter rail systems throughout the nation at sites from Hartford, Conn., to Napa, Calif., according to the American Public Transportation Association. Almost that many systems already are operating, with an average of more than 1.3 million passengers boarding the trains daily.
Daily ridership nationwide has grown by more than 3 percent annually over the past two years, according to statistics reported to the association.
Denise Bunnewith, executive director of the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization, said development in fast growing Clay and St. Johns counties is moving a lot of traffic into the city.
“I think it’s something we need to look at,” she said. “If this isn’t the right time to get the money, I don’t know when the right time would be.”