News & Public Affairs
St. Pete to add optional curbside recycling for a price listen
09/02/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: St. Pete City Council, Wengay Newton, Steve Kornell, Amendment Four, Hometown Democracy, high-speed rail
Being green hasn’t been easy for those living in St. Petersburg, where most residents have to sort, then lug their recyclables to a recycling center. Today, that changed. The city will soon offer curbside recycling – for a fee.
It was a unanimous decision, which St. Pete City Council member Steve Kornell summed up well: it's long overdue.
The City Council has entered into a 2-year agreement with the Florida division of Waste Services Incorporated, the third largest solid waste managemen...
Be the first to commentFlorida high-speed rail will be partnership with private company to design-build-operate listen
08/31/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: high-speed rail, kathy castor, transit, transportation, Lakeland, Orlando, Tampa, FDOT
Beginning in just a few years, you’ll be able to take a bullet train from Tampa to Orlando in under an hour. But before then the high-speed rail line needs to be built. Half of the roughly $2.5 billion dollar project has been funded through the federal Recovery Act.
The Florida Department of Transportation is hosting meetings this week in the three cities where the bullet train will stop; Today in Tampa, tomorrow in Lakeland, and Thursday in Orlando.
For a preview of those meetings WM...
Be the first to commentU.S. Rep. Castor previews high-speed rail meetings in Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando listen
08/30/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: high-speed rail, kathy castor, transit, transportation
Tampa will be one of the first communities in the country to have a true high-speed rail line. Because of a federal stimulus grant, Florida will construct a line that starts in downtown Tampa and continues to Lakeland and Orlando.
This week there will be meetings on high-speed rail in those three cities beginning tomorrow in Tampa. As a preview, WMNF spoke with U.S. Representative Kathy Castor (D-FL).
The high-speed rail meetings in Tampa will b...
Be the first to commentTampa City Council rejects study on high-speed rail to airport listen
07/29/10 Seán Kinane & Lachelle RoddyWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: rail, high-speed rail, light rail, commuter rail, Tampa City Council, Ed Turanchik, MPO, tampa international airport
Tampa City Council voted down a resolution calling on the state to study a high-speed rail link between downtown and Tampa International Airport. The vote was 3-4 to defeat the resolution Council had requested two weeks ago.
John Wheat, interim director of Tampa International Airport’s board, told Council that a light rail link makes more sense at the airport.
4 comments"Since 2003, we've prepared a couple of studies. Our most recent one was done in 2007, which provided for a light rail corrido...
HART to study rail link to Tampa International Airport listen
07/19/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: transit, Transit Referendum, HART, rail, light rail, high-speed rail
Today the board of HART, Hillsborough County’s transit agency, agreed to study light rail from downtown Tampa to the Tampa International Airport. Mary Shavalier is HART’s chief of strategic planning and program development.
Be the first to comment"Well at today's board meeting the HART board made a decision on a very small amendment to the study area that we're looking at, to try to determine how we could try to enhance transit between downtown Tampa and the Westshore business district. We have been previously ...
Tampa City Council supports short high-speed rail extension from downtown to airport listen
07/15/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: high-speed rail, light rail, commuter rail, Tampa, Tampa City Council, Barack Obama, Mary Mulhern, transit
In January, President Barack Obama came to Tampa to announce that federal stimulus funds would be used to pay for half the cost of a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. There are three stops planned for the Orlando area – including their airport, one in Lakeland, and one in downtown Tampa. But Tampa officials are concerned that the bullet train will not go to Tampa International Airport.
Today City Council unanimously supported a resolution put forward by Council member Mary M...
3 commentsTBARTA Board talks rail, airport leg listen
06/25/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: TBARTA, HART, transit, Ken Hagan, Transit Referendum, FDOT, rail, light rail, high-speed rail
Today transit officials heard the latest on proposed rail lines in the Tampa Bay area. The question of an airport connection was front and center.
"We haven't gotten used to being among the best in a lot of things. But when it comes to transportation, Hillsborough County is last for commuters. Dead last."
After Tampa Bay Partnership president Stuart Rogel screened his organization’s new ad promoting a transit tax in Hillsborough, County Commission Chair and TBARTA Board member Ken Ha...
2 commentsHillsborough Commissioners agree on city-county split for transit tax funds listen
02/25/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: transit referrendum, Hillsborough County Commission, Jim Norman, Mark Sharpe, Rose Ferlita, Ken Hagen, high-speed rail, Al Higginbotham
Because of a massive federal grant, Tampa is likely to be on one end of a bullet train that will connect to Orlando and eventually Miami. But whether passengers arriving in Tampa will have access to robust interconnected transportation options could depend on the mood of Hillsborough voters this November to raise their own taxes.
Today Commissioner Jim Norman, who opposes that sales tax increase, accused supporters of trying to hide where much of the revenue would go by not including the ...
Be the first to commentIn State of the Union, Obama mentions Tampa visit and high-speed rail funding listen
01/28/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: high-speed rail, transportation funding, Barack Obama, stimulus money
In his state of the Union address last night, President Barack Obama said that Florida will receive stimulus funding for a high speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. Obama says projects like the bullet train will put Americans to work building the infrastructure of tomorrow.
Obama: “From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manu...
Be the first to commentTampa Mayor Pam Iorio predicts federal funding for remainder of high-speed rail costs listen
01/28/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Pam Iorio, Barack Obama, high-speed rail, stimulus money
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio greeted President Obama when he arrived on Air Force One at MacDill Air Force Base. After his speech, the Mayor predicted that the federal government would eventually fund the remaining cost of the high-speed rail line to Orlando.
Iorio has been a major proponent of the high-speed rail connection between Tampa and Orlando that will be partially funded through $1.25 billion in federal Recovery Act money.
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