After a series of many meetings and discussions, it finally took the development of the corner block at Howard and Swann by Post Properties to unleash part of the money required to expand this service. The City required Post to contribute to this service before approving any building permits. Starting in January of 2006, the trolley (actually a bus that looks sort of like a trolley) will continue past Olde Hyde Park Village from Downtown to loop around Howard and Bristol(the road behind Kash N Karry) on its way back to downtown.
With the business on South Howard, this is past overdue. Unfortunately, the hours are so limited that it might not accomplish much. Plans call for the service to start at 11:30 AM and end at 9 on weeknights and 11 on weekends. Not real supportive of doing an Ybor City, Channelside, or Forum event. BUT it is at least a start.
A possible short loop route could run with an additional $50,000 or a Long loop route for about $150,000. Get details here.
With the difficulty finding parking and fighting traffic, this could help to solve part of these problems. What do you think ?
6 comments:
Why dont they have these meetings on the weeeknds and serve coffee and danish..juat kidding..the first detour is a great start but that trolley really has to consider servicing till 11pm sun-thurs and till 2am on fri and sat. dont just consider the residents, but conventioneers complain that they cant get around except channelside and ybor, and want to check out SOHO wih its many one of a kind restaurants and bars(the non-chain pre-fabricated ones)...when is SOWE(south westshore from Zaeem Palace to Green Iguana) getting its own designation status, its quite the nice little section of town with several restaurants and bars..make me aware of when the trolley will head down bayshore blvd to bay to bay blvd(lots of restaurants there near macdill to himes), then bay to bay to westshore and euclid(SOWE district), then down Euclid to MacDill(SoMac district - lots of fine establishments along MacDill), then macDill back to Bay to Bay and finally up Howard Ave. Now thats a real Looper of some great South Tampa Neighborhood areas. Imagine easting in Ybor, having dessert in SOHO, a drink at Red Dog, then some live music at the original Green Iguana, some English beers at Mad Dog and Englishmen, back to SOHO for some more cocktails, a stop off at Channelside Howl at the Moon, and stumbling to your car back in Ybor on a Saturday night. YEAH!
Oh, andmake sure it runs every 10 minutes....
If the trolley doesnt run until 2 or 3am then it will not benefit me as a SOHO resident...the whole point is to not drive....people are just starting to go out at 11pm....
AFTER CONSIDERATION, But with little fanfare, Hartline has started the Trolley service before the end of the year.
The current mass transit system has one blaring obstacle. If the young affluent(i.e. cool beautiful people)refuse to use this resource as a viable means of getting around, most won't get with the program. Overheard at Channelside," I'm not taking the trolley...What am I a tourist?" Hartlines' schedueling,image,and services require a major rethinking and retooling to make mass transit a more attractive option to the masses.
Anyone who talks down on the trolley system, claiming it too touristy for their taste is quite the uncultivated bufoon. I wonder when he goes on his European trip that when he stumbles upon the means of which every Euro travels is not actually by car well if he changes his ignorant, car warped mind.
Second note: American bodies are deformed due to the heavy use of the car.
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