Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on express bus service:
Business News
FDOT contemplates express bus service, toll lanes for area
By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: March 3, 2015 | Updated: March 3, 2015 at 08:50 PM
TAMPA — While the state moves along with plans to build express toll lanes on area interstates, it is also looking at how to incorporate “premium express bus service” into those lanes.
The Florida Department of Transportation and Jacobs Engineering are looking at potential station locations and what such a service might look like. Funding hasn’t been addressed yet, at least not publicly.
The express buses would potentially serve Wesley Chapel, the University of South Florida, downtown Tampa, Westshore, the Greater Gateway/Carillon area and downtown St. Petersburg.
Jacobs Engineering Planning Director Scott Pringle made a presentation to the Metropolitan Planning Organization board on Tuesday, saying the object of the commuter transit plan would be to get bus customers to their destinations more quickly using the express lanes.
FDOT unveiled its plan for Tampa Bay Express toll lanes on Interstates 275, 4 and 75 in late January as part of a grand statewide decongestion plan to put pay lanes in major metro areas. There isn’t yet any funding earmarked for the lanes in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and even when the projects get funded, each section of the lanes is expected to take six or seven years to complete. The idea is for people to pay to drive in a lane that will move them past congestion.
Those same lanes would be used for the commuter buses.
The study is looking at where the greatest ridership is — the urban core — and the best locations for stations that could connect easily to local buses, Pringle said. Some possible station locations mentioned were Wesley Chapel, near State Road 56, on Fletcher Avenue, at the Marion Street Transit Station in downtown Tampa and the Gateway area of St. Petersburg.
“We’ll be coming forward in a couple of weeks to talk about cost and ridership,” Pringle said.
MPO member Lisa Montelione, who sits on the Tampa City Council, said she is most concerned with who would pay for the buses. “Why aren’t we talking about the buses first and not the lanes?”
Pringle said it will take more than one agency to make the express bus plan work and there will be plenty of conversation coming up on funding.
Joe Waggoner, an MPO member and head of the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, applauded FDOT for involving transit in the plan for express toll lanes. “It’s about mobility, not just moving vehicles,” he said. “When it comes to financing, that is where the real tough question resides. It’s not just about planning for transit, but having transit as a funding partner.”
“We have to think smart about this if it’s going to be effective,” said Hillsborough County Commission Chair Sandy Murman, also a member of the MPO board. “Connectivity is really important , but what I hope will happen is we will have BRT (Bus Rapid Transit)” connecting in with the commuter buses.
BRT are buses that run on managed road lanes where they are able to use technology to extend green lights or shorten red lights for a faster trip. Here in Hillsborough County, the 17.5 miles stretch for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority’s MetroRapid North-South runs between downtown Tampa and Fletcher Avenue and Interstate 75.
