I rode Tampa's historic streetcar the other day. And it was …
Sad.
It wasn't sad just because only a few silver-haired tourists and I rumbled along the 2.7-mile stretch between the southern edge of downtown east and north to the Latin Quarter of Ybor City. Yep, just us — even though it was a sunny workday, when downtowners pour out of tall buildings in droves to lunch at a bevy of restaurants.
Except they get in their cars and drive to them, or walk if they're close enough.
And it wasn't sad just because the route that skirts past the Channelside shops and the Florida Aquarium makes little sense for getting most people where they need to be, save for a touristy trip to Ybor City.
It wasn't even the $2.50 single-ride fare — which means $5 to get there and back, or $20 for a family of four — too pricey to take it on a regular basis. As Mayor Bob Buckhorn put it when we talked trolley, who's going to spend $5 for a $6 Cuban?
It wasn't even the trolley's lack of purpose. Wait time is 20 minutes. Our slow-moving car came to a halt outside Channelside for a while, without explanation. After a few minutes of restless sitting under the strains of piped-in easy-listening music, most of my silver-haired companions gave up, got off and left.
No, here's why riding the city's historic electric streetcar seemed so sad: because it's seriously charming, rife with possibility and, in its current state, a waste.
The cars — one restored, others very cool replicas — are shiny yellow and red as they roll along the tracks with a trolley-capped driver occasionally tooting the whistle. Inside, they're all polished brass, gleaming wood, hanging straps and pretty glass light fixtures, as you'd imagine Tampa a century ago with trolleys ferrying cigar workers and families and anyone who wanted to come downtown.
Nearly two decades back, then-City Council member Buckhorn was at one point the only guy voting against the historic trolley. Things that concerned him — for instance, that an initial ridership projection was unconvincing, or that it couldn't be considered real transportation as it was — came to pass.
Ridership in 2004 was 425,614. Last year it was 277,806.
Now some good news for a city on the move: A recent study for HART, the transportation agency that also runs the trolley, explored the possibility of extending routes into the heart of downtown — you know, where the people are — and morphing it into a modern streetcar, or light rail. Buckhorn himself sounds enthused about changing this beautiful boondoggle (my words, not his) into an adapted system that could one day reach all the way to West Shore.
This, of course, will take money — between $40 million and $60 million for any one of the four initial options into downtown's core. Why might it work? Because this is a different Tampa, one that just got a major boost with Lightning owner Jeff Vinik's big plans for a game-changing makeover downtown. Vinik has already mentioned the trolley's possibilities.
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Explore all your optionsSo: A modern trolley born of charm and history that actually gets people where they need to be, affordably and fast?
That I'd happily ride.