Tampa streetcars running again

trainsmag.com (free registration required to access news wire) ^ | 10/21/02 | Bill Stephens

[foreverfree]

Thanks PAR35 and Willie.

BTW Willie, you seem to be FR's transit expert. Now I just came off a 9 1/2 month temporary office assignment at a transit agency, but, you, Willie, seem to be "da man" when it comes to transit expertise on FR. Do you have a background therein?

foreverfree

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

53 million dollars!!!!!!!!!! what a F##king outrageous waste of our money

[ovrtaxt]

Tampa is famous for great ideas that would up being boondoggles

Yep. We can thank Joe 'ChooChoo' Chillura for this one. He's been pushing this fiasco for at least four years now. A monumentally stupid idea.

The ride from downtown to Ybor is like 40 minutes, a trip that doesn't take that long to walk. This is a tourist thing, pure and simple. Nothing for the citizens of course.

Anybody remember that stupid tram that went from the downtown parking garage to Harbor Island? It cost millions to build, and after five years of costing more to operate than it made, they tore it down. We have some stupid voters in this town!

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

whats next a 3 billion high speed rail that will be voted into the constitution by a bunch of nitwits with no idea who will be paying for it? OH wait never mind

[foreverfree]

We can thank Joe 'ChooChoo' Chillura for this one.

Is he the mayor?

foreverfree

[ovrtaxt]

No, a county commissioner. Im not sure what role Mayor Greco played in this whole thing, if these are city or county funds. Chillura most recently headed the board to bring the Olympics to Tampa in 2012, another unrealistic idea.

[BfloGuy]

Thanks for the link. It was unclear in the article if there was a fare or if this was a "public service".

From an esthetic standpoint I like this type of development. I live in a city and I think we'd all be wise to use public transport.

But the fact remains that most of us choose not to. The city bus stops directly by my house and I've never used it to go downtown or anywhere else for that matter.

I'm afraid that trolley lines, such as this, are simply money holes that make for nice photos for tourists.

[gabby hayes]

I'll postpone final judgment until Steyn, Coulter, or Malkin present a read on this issue.

[bobwoodard]

Actually, that would be Tampa 2012 President Ed Turanchik. More commonly referred to as Ed "Choo-Choo" Turanchik.