News & Public Affairs

County transit officials to tread lightly on rail listen

11/15/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: HART, TBARTA, Hillsborough County, penny transit tax, Mark Sharpe, transportation

In the wake of the Hillsborough transit referendum getting shot down in the polls, officials are grappling with the question of what to do next. Members of the county’s transportation agency are opting to tread lightly as they look for new ways to go forward on transit.

Facing the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Board this morning, transportation advocate Pierre Mathurin says he has a regret.

"I wish that I would have done more to encourage people to vote for countywide transportati...

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Bike Bash and Cure on Wheels Promote Safe Bike Riding in Tampa Bay listen

11/08/10 Sarah Curran
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Tags: bicycle, HART, bikes

You never forget how to ride a bike.

Whether people were getting on a bike for the first time in a while or using their everyday transportation hundreds showed up to support one to the area’s most popular sports, Bike riding.

“Well, we want to energize people about bicycling in the Tampa Bay it is a great lifestyle its healthy for you, great transportation and we need an event to kinda get people juiced up about cycling.”

The fifth annual bike bash gave resident an opportunity ...

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HART Board approves tentative light rail plan listen

10/18/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: HART, Kevin Beckner, penny transit tax, Hillsborough County, CSX

Hillsborough County may be getting light rail. Today officials presented findings from a fifteen month transportation study, and transit board members, though skeptical of the fine details, approved of the recommendations.

More than a year in the making, the pages of the alternatives analysis contain a clue to how life in Hillsborough County may change in the coming decades. Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority head planner Mary Shavalier says it irons out numerous factors involved...

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Hillsborough may beef up bus system even without transit tax listen

10/11/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Penny transit tax, HART, TBARTA, tax, referendum, November election, transit, light rail, bus rapid transit

Those who find getting around Hillsborough County’s roads to be treacherous may soon have some reprieve. Transit officials in Tampa are approaching two key steps they say will make it easier to get from point A to point B without a car. But one might come sooner than another.

Transit is on a lot of people’s minds these days. In about three weeks, Hillsborough County voters may approve a penny-per-dollar sales tax boost to fund a transit overhaul. But a smaller project may get underway in H...

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TBARTA hears from freight giant CSX listen

08/27/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Pam Iorio, CSX, Florida legislature, transit tax, TBARTA, HART, mass transit, rail, light rail

This morning, the board of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, or TBARTA, heard from freight company CSX. TBARTA is exploring the possibility of to running part of its proposed rail line along a CSX corridor. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said the CSX right of way in question would constitute a crucial portion of the proposed countywide mass transit system.

However, the mayor said, CSX doesn’t necessarily have to be part of the equation.

The other option is to go along I-275. ...

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HART to study rail link to Tampa International Airport listen

07/19/10 Seán Kinane
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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.

"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 ...

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TBARTA Board talks rail, airport leg listen

06/25/10 Kate Bradshaw
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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...

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TBARTA Talks transit-oriented development, rail on Bruce B. Downs listen

04/30/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: TBARTA, HART, Pam Iorio, David Armijo, Transportation, transit

Imagine going days without getting into your car – having a bus or rail line within steps of your door to get you to work, and being able to walk to nearby restaurants. Many cities already have this type of layout, something planners call transit-oriented development. Today the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority Board heard from Bob Hunter, head of the Hillsborough City-County Planning Commission, on the concept.

Hunter said that the commission is trying to amend Hillsborough’s comp...

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PBS Reporter Grills Tampa Transit Leaders listen

04/14/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Pam Iorio, newshour, PBS, David Armijo, HART, TBARTA, Gerald White, Univeristy of Tampa

At the University of Tampa yesterday Tampa transit leaders heard some of the toughest questions yet on their proposed transit overhaul, and they weren’t coming from a tax-bashing tea partier. They came from PBS Newshour’s Paul Solman, who was there as part of a town hall series in Tampa Bay this week. He challenged the assertion that Tampa Bay might enjoy the same five hundred percent return other cities have after investing in rail. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio responded.

The meeting was just ah...

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Hillsborough County Commission passes transit ballot question language listen

03/17/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Al Higginbotham, Kevin Beckner, Kevin White, Mike Merrill, Rose Ferlita, HART, Jim Norman, Frank Hibbard

After months of debating how to ask voters to approve a one-cent sales tax increase to fund transit, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners has approved language for the November ballot.

They were given three wording options. Option A left out the percentage of the revenue that would go toward public transit vs. road projects. B and C didn’t. They went with option C, which Commissioner Rose Ferlita proposed because of its structure.

Al Higginbotham was one of two commissioners ...

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