Tampa — Public Meetings for Expansion

March 2017

The city of Tampa in west-central Florida will hold three public meeting on a possible expansion of the TECO heritage streetcar line with the first session on March 7, the Tampa Bay Times newspaper reports. Other meetings are slated for April 4 and May 2.

The streetcar should get more use, Mayor Bob Buckhorn said in announcing the meetings, so "we are taking a hard look at its future."

"A potential extension of the system through downtown could open up connections to new neighborhoods, jobs and entertainment," said Buckhorn. He, incidentally, was the sole city councillor who voted against the initial trolley proposal in the 1990s.

But now the $3 billion redevelopment project near Amalie Arena being planned by Strategic Property Partners (SPP), a joint effort of Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment capital fund changes the reasoning.

SPP is working with the city to evaluate iff an expanded trolley line would better move workers, sports fans and residents around downtown. In 2015 the City and Florida DOT approved a study of expansion and improvement options. Results are expected in the summier of 2017.

Ridership at 287,000 in 2016 is considerably less than the 500,000 annual riders forecast initially. In the first few months of the next fiscal year ridership was up 12%. Saturdays see the heaviest ridership with 2,330 riders on average, three times more than weekdays.