Light rail now unlikely to come to Pasco

Tampa Tribune, 2012-11-29

By Laura Kinsler, Tampa Tribune, Fla.

Nov. 29--WESLEY CHAPEL -- The potential for light rail in Pasco County is looking less likely now that Hillsborough County and Tampa officials are considering nixing a rail line along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Richard Gehring, Pasco's growth management administrator, said Hillsborough's decisions have serious ramifications to its northern neighbor -- especially if light rail is "dead" on Bruce B. Downs.

Hillsborough voters rejected a referendum in 2010 for a 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax to pay for light rail and other transportation improvements throughout the region. A rail line along the newly widened Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa was supposed to be a key segment of the network -- the county even set aside an extra 20 feet of right-of-way for the future rail line.

The plan, endorsed by the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, was to carry the rail north to Wiregrass Ranch, where it would eventually connect with a transit corridor along the State Road 54/56 corridor.

"Right now, we're looking at what we can realistically afford," said Beth Alden, assistant director of Hillsborough's Metropolitan Planning Organization. That includes a dramatically scaled-down version of light rail: a demonstration line between downtown Tampa and the University of South Florida.

Alden said the MPO staff will ask its board to recommend a half-cent sales tax referendum, possibly in 2014. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is also pursing legislation that would allow the city to call a referendum, since support for rail is higher among Tampa voters.

Alden briefed Pasco officials earlier this month when more than a dozen staff members from both counties met to discuss transportation issues facing New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. One of the problems with the earlier TBARTA plan was that 20 feet of right-of-way along Bruce B. Downs wouldn't have been wide enough to accommodate light rail unless it was elevated, she said. That makes the project cost-prohibitive.

"We're looking at Bus Rapid Transit strategies on Bruce B. Downs," she said.

The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority will launch its first BRT route in the spring with sleek new buses equipped to extend green lights and shorten red lights. The route will have fewer stops and a park-and-ride lot in Temple Terrace, but it won't extend farther north than Fletcher Avenue.

Alden said the MPO is considering adding a MetroRapid bus route on Bruce B. Downs, either in the space that was set aside for light rail or making one lane in each direction a restricted carpool and bus lane during peak traffic hours.

The proposal wasn't immediately embraced by the Pasco contingent.

"If it has to stop at every intersection on Bruce B. Downs it's not rapid," Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein said.

He also noted that Pasco County had required the owners of Wiregrass Ranch to reserve right-of-way for future rail lines and stations that now may never materialize. On Wednesday, Goldstein said Pasco and Wiregrass could substitute BRT lanes where the light-rail lines would have gone.

"We're prepared to deal with either one," he said. "We needed to get a feel for what Tampa and Hillsborough are thinking, because whatever they're doing to the south of us affects what we do because we're going to be connecting to it."

___

(c)2012 the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.)

Visit the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) at www.tampatrib.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.