by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
It took two years, but all indications are a new destination will be added to the current Downtown Trolley route.
By fall, the San Marco route that City Council president Matt Carlucci requested should be a reality. Although Jacksonville Transportation Authority officials haven’t worked out the details, they said the route would include multiple Trolleys running from the Northbank to San Marco during lunchtime hours, a first since the Trolley service was started in April 2000.
“We have to get the Trolleys first,” said Marci Larson, manager of communications and marketing for JTA. “We don’t have a time line yet. It’s contingent on having the equipment and we have no idea how long it will take. It will be more than one Trolley, but there are a couple of different scenarios.”
Carlucci has been pursuing the route almost since the Trolley’s inception, and was actually assured the route would be implemented at a meeting with Mike Blaylock, deputy executive director/director of mass transit for JTA, in October 2000. Although the main delay has been funding, it now looks like that issue has been solved.
The cost of the route has been placed at around $100,000 a year, and for months now Blaylock has been trying to locate the funding. He found half of it through state grants provided by the Florida Department of Transportation. And now it looks like the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission will come through with the other half.
“It will likely be an action item on our agenda for Thursday [today],” said Heather Surface, chief of communications for the JEDC. “A funding source has not been identified, but the Southbank Tax Increment fund may be considered. The project would require JEDC approval as well as City Council approval.”
For Carlucci, who has been hearing about it from San Marco residents and business owners for months, the news is well-received.
“This is real important to San Marco,” said Carlucci. “There is a lot of construction going on in San Marco and we have lost parking to the new library site. It’s wonderful news for San Marco and it’s better late than never. I think they will be happy about it and it will be convenient for people who want to go over there for lunch but have trouble finding parking.”
Carlucci also maintains that the San Marco Trolley route exemplifies exactly what JTA needs to concentrate on as entities like the JEDC, Downtown Development Authority and City Council work in unison to help renovate and revitalize downtown and the surrounding areas of San Marco, Springfield and Riverside. He also believes that JTA itself is the key to the success of the new Trolley route.
“I think JTA needs to take a closer look at mass transit in the core city,” said Carlucci. “They have a plan and they have a [Trolley] route decided. It’s up to them to market it and do it right. That’s their job. That’s what they are here for.”