by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
At the urging of its customers and City Council member Elaine Brown, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority has created two new trolley routes which will go into effect July 1.
While it may seem the new routes are for the benefit of downtown workers — and they will be — the routes are more in response to Northside JTA bus riders than downtown workers wanting to get from the County Courthouse to City Hall.
“It’s definitely a combination of both,” said Joanne Kazmierski, a spokesperson for JTA. “Number one, we are making changes to our Northside bus lines. Previously, they circulated downtown before they would go back out to the Northside. Our customers said this was wasting too much time.”
Because several Northside bus lines end at the FCCJ Skyway station, JTA will use two new trolley routes to continue those as they would have circulated through downtown. They will be free and, obviously, available to all. More than anything, shifting that portion of those bus routes to trolley service will allow those buses to return to the Northside more often.
“It will give us better frequency on the Northside and allow us to better serve downtown,”said Kazmierski.
The new routes will run at a frequency of every 30 minutes except from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. when they will run every 15 minutes. This may sound like a long wait, but Kazmierski said it’s the same frequency of the current Northside bus routes that wind through downtown.
At this point, there are three trolleys running the same route, which essentially goes from the trolley parking lot by the sports complex, up Bay Street, past the Landing and back to the lot. In a few weeks, there will still be three trolleys running that route — it will be known as the Sunflower route — but there will be two other trolleys — the Magnolia and Azalea routes — serving the rest of downtown. Those routes will serve mostly the western end of downtown, but will also include stops at City Hall and the Osborn Center.
Kazmierski said JTA has also decided to streamline another aspect of its downtown service by eliminating the bus routes that served only as JTA bus driver shuttles. Those buses that currently carry only relief drivers will be dropped, thus reducing congestion on downtown streets, and the drivers will instead ride trolleys to relief points.
“The trolleys are more feasible to run than a 40-foot bus that’s only carrying bus drivers,” said Kazmierski, adding the trolleys are also more aesthetically pleasing. “They are also more visible to downtown employees.”
City Council member Elaine Brown has also played a role in JTA’s expanded and revised trolley service. For months she has been lobbying for a route that includes all City buildings and offices.
“To an extent, this is at the request of Elaine Brown and even [Council president] Matt Carlucci,” said Kazmierski. “Yes, there was a lot of pressure as to why there weren’t other trolley routes.”
The JTA will expand its trolley route again this fall when its starts servicing San Marco during the lunchtime hours. Kazmierski said the new downtown routes will not have any affect on the San Marco routes, which Carlucci has been after for almost two years.
“We are getting brand new equipment for those routes and plans are still being finalized,” she said. “The funding has been approved and we are still moving forward.”
Over the next couple of weeks, Kazmierski and the rest of JTA’s communications and marketing department will be busy getting the word out about the new routes. Pamphlets on the affected buses and trolleys will inform regular riders, but the trick will be to market the routes outside current customers. Kazmierski said in addition to passing flyers out at the Landing and taking out radio and newspaper ads, JTA will distribute a revamped downtown mobility guide.
“The concierge desks at the office buildings will have the new trolley routes and the new mobility guide will have a downtown cultural connection,” explained Kazmierski. “It will show how to get to the museums and parks via the Skyway and the
trolley.”