After the Jacksonville Transportation Authority held meetings to gauge the public’s interest on the future of the Skyway tram and the autonomous Ultimate Urban Circulator system, the authority is gearing up to do it again.
JTA has scheduled eight public meetings May 11-14 to allow Jacksonville residents to weigh in on the future of the Skyway. As with the last round of meetings, JTA will present options for what the Skyway could transform into as it nears the end of its operating life, including one to retrofit the tram to support the Ultimate Urban Circulator, or U2C as it also is known.
Other options include leaving the system as-is with two operational cars, restoring it to its original 10 cars and transforming the elevated tram structure to a walking and cycling trail connected to the Emerald Trail.
JTA will present the same alternatives during the May meetings as it did during the previous sessions, held in February through March. A JTA spokesperson said the options presented to the public in May will reflect cost ranges for the plans, with other considerations potentially added.
The spokesperson said residents who weighed in on the Skyway’s future during the first round of meetings consistently said they wanted more detail regarding each option.
The meetings are scheduled each day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. as follows:
May 11: Florida State College at Jacksonville Advanced Technology Center, 401 W. State St.
May 12: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Jacksonville Riverfront, 1201 Riverplace Blvd.
May 13: Jessie Ball duPont Center, 40 E. Adams St.
May 14: Ashley Square, 650 N. Newnan St.
During an April 7 meeting of the City Council Special Committee on Duval DOGE, JTA CEO Nat Ford said members of the public had expressed the most interest in converting the Skyway into a railway for people-mover trains or a multiuse trail.
JTA planned for the Skyway to be repurposed for the U2C, JTA’s autonomous vehicle program. That transformation would allow U2C vehicles, which currently run on the Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Innovation system on and near Bay Street in Downtown, to travel along the Skyway structure between Downtown neighborhoods in the second phase of U2C build-out.
The second phase of the U2C is expected to cost $247 million.
The third phase, which would expand the U2C into Brooklyn, Riverside, San Marco, the Southbank and Springfield, is expected to cost $95 million.
JTA also is exploring expanding its autonomous transit to ReadiRide zones around Jacksonville, though the authority has not presented any formal plans to do so.