Could CSX be part of the solution?
Just when we’ve pretty much reconciled ourselves to more mess transit and sprawl accommodation, along comes word that CSX is shopping a couple of segments, totaling about 100 miles, of its Tampa Bay freight routes. Commuter rail conversion is at least up for discussion. The track connects, however circuitously, the downtowns of Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Tampa. The steel grating also links USF and TIA.
“It’s there, it’s underutilized, and it connects important points,” notes former Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, a prominent regional transit advocate. “It’s very viable.”
This, mind you, from the folks who’ve brought us the liability insurance-end game with the TECO Line Streetcars over the RR crossing at 13th Street and 5th Avenue in Ybor. This also from the folks synonymous with downtown, train-horn wake ups in the wee hours of the night.
For a city–and region–that remains so demonstrably mass-transit challenged, this is worth scrutinizing. It may–or may not–be fiscally and strategically viable. Time, for sure, is not on our side.