Getting Bay Area's Transit Act Together

By RICH SHOPES The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 3, 2007

Click on map to enlarge.

TAMPA - A group of transportation planners from six counties is proposing a single mass transit plan that incorporates rail, buses and even ferry service across the Tampa Bay area.

After decades of fractious efforts by local governments and pro-transit groups, the gathering to conceive a single regional plan is a breakthrough of sorts.

In February, Pinellas County Commission Chairman Ronnie Duncan formed the Regional Transit Workgroup with planners and officials from Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.

Group members have been combining transit plans that have surfaced over the years into a working draft. The result is a map to be unveiled July 13.

"This is about offering options," Duncan said. "We're sitting in traffic more and more, and every year that goes by it gets worse."

To be sure, the plan is a long way from reality.

But unlike previous plans that are gathering dust, this one overlaps a state Department of Transportation plan that calls for regional transit corridors.

Duncan hopes the new Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority that Gov. Charlie Crist recently signed into law will consider the plan a starting point.

How long before the first trains roll down the tracks? Duncan thinks 10 to 15 years "isn't out of the realm of possibility."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or rshopes@tampatrib.com.