Question and Answer with Kathy Karalekas of HART

With all the discussion going on with the changes to HART, the rail system and other HART-related issues all over Tampa, I went to the source to ask about the state of mass transit in Tampa. Kathy Karalekas, Public Information Officer for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, was kind enough to respond to my queries.

Are there plans for expanded rail here in Tampa? I’ve taken the channelside to ybor rail trolley and it’s great. Was hoping to see more of that in the future.

We’ll be extending the The TECO Line Streetcar System soon (that’s another quirky thing about us – we call the rubber-wheel trolley-buses that circulate around downtown “trolleys,” while the little electric trains on rails are “streetcars” – so there is a difference.).

The current end of the line near the Tampa Convention Center will be extended about 1/3 of a mile to Whiting Street. Not far, but it does get us right to the doorstep of downtown. The extension can eventually get people who live in Channelside and Ybor to work in downtown – although today the service starts too late for that. We’re hoping that extending the line will cause more people to ride, which will allow us to extend the hours as well. Plus, it will be a big help for Gasparilla and other big events downtown, and can take the office workers to lunch in Channelside. There will also be a new station there at the new terminus. We’ve put that project out to bid and should start construction later this year.

As for a commuter rail or light rail system, there may be some light at the end of that tunnel as well. We had a Tampa rail project that was approved for federal funding back in 2002, but our county commission at the time did not support providing the required local funding and it was shelved. That project has been dusted off, and we’re working on getting it back into the New Starts federal funding process. There have been discussions about asking the county commission to place a referendum for local transit funding on the ballot in 2010. That funding could be used for a new rail transit system, as well as beefing up the county bus system, also vital to a healthy rail line (you need buses to get people from the train station to their final destination, especially in a hot and rainy climate like ours!).

Secondly, do your buses and trains take credit or debit cards? I ask as that’s one of the things that keeps me from riding either more often. I hate carrying cash and I know a lot of others feel the same way.

You can’t pay by credit card onboard, but there are several other options for you:

Ticket Vending Machines – the TECO Line Streetcar System has an automated TVM at Dick Greco Plaza, the current end of the line near the Tampa Convention Center. I think there are also TVM’s at Marion Transit Center downtown and at the Netpark Transfer Center near Temple Terrace for bus travel, but I’m not 100% sure about that. They take credit cards, but not debit cards right now.

Staffed Customer Service Centers – If you visit Marion Transit Center at the north end of downtown or HART on Franklin right next to Tampa Police Dept. in the heart of downtown, you can use your credit card to buy fare cards. The University Area Transit Center near USF, HART’s administrative offices on 7th Avenue in Ybor City and our operations and maintenance facility on 21st Avenue off of I-4 and 40th Street also accept credit cards for fare card purchases (those last two are only open during regular M-F business hours).

Online purchases – You can order fare cards online via our secure server at www.goHART.org. Click on the Transit Store link on the bottom bar of the page. You can pay using a credit card and receive your fare cards in the mail. One caveat: the store has been down for a few days while the company that hosts it migrates to a new server. Not sure when it will be back up, but we’re hoping it’s soon!

Lastly, what improvements are planned for HART over the next 3 months? 6 months? year? few years?

The two biggies we have going on right now are the streetcar extension to Whiting and the new Bus Rapid Transit project. BRT is an express bus system with new vehicles and station stops, fewer stops, faster boarding and some other advanced technology to help speed up travel time. The first phase of BRT will be a North-South line starting on Fletcher Avenue, then traveling down Nebraska Avenue to downtown. Construction on that should begin late this year or early next year, with operation expected sometime in 2011. The second phase of BRT service will be an East-West line between HART’s Netpark Transfer Center (at Hillsborough Avenue and 56th Street) and Tampa International Airport. The second line is still in the planning stages and is a few years away.

Here’s a link to the BRT page on our website for some more info: http://www.gohart.org/departments/marketing/brt/brt_main_page.html

We’re also adding frequency to service between the airport and downtown on Route 30, which should be cool. And we’re adding to existing service to make it work better for everyone. Our March 29th service changes include about 900 hours of new service per week.

In addition, you might have seen some news coverage in the last few days that HART is receiving $15 million in federal stimulus funds. Some of that will be used to buy new buses and update some others, and there are also some other projects in the works for that. Here are links to the stories, in the Tribune and on Fox 13:

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/25/na-stimulus-to-benefit-hart/news-metro/

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/HART_022509

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