Not sure,but if they connected west Pasco to points south I'd be interested.

In comparing our region to various other regions, something that should be kept in mine is the population density of the areas. I would think that light rail would be a good investment in areas with a high population density. In areas with lower population densities buses operating in dedicated lanes would provide an economical solution to the problem of mass transit.

Absolutely! We are 50 years behind in Pinellas county! With no end in sight. There never will be a perfect solution or a magical quick fix to our transportation issues but that is no excuse for not forging ahead with time proven methods instead of sticking our heads in the sand as we have done in the past. There is no excuse for not having a light rail right down the middle of US 19 from St Pete to Tarpon and one from Tampa to Clearwater Beach.

I'm a retired republican and I ain't paying.A waste of tax dollars.

YES! And I agree with Ed on light rail connecting St. Pete to Tarpon Springs - I would love to use rail for this route rather than slogging slowly along in a car.

Absolutely!!!

I am a retired Republican also but I moved here from a progressive northern city. In Chicago or even Washington DC, you can go anywhere in the city without getting your car out of the drive. That is, if you even bother to own a car with the insurance and gas prices.

Light rail has a use in Tampa although it would be more for the tourists. The rail system has to link the Amtrak station, the Tampa Airport, the Westshore & International Malls, The SOHO Hyde Park area, Lowry Park zoo, Busch Gardens / Adventure Island and the major universities. There would be some use of the rail system by locals and depending on the location of the rail, it would provide dense growth along the route, that would in turn lead to more local use.

I did leave out Pinellas and Pasco from my previous comment, the St Pete / Clearwater airport, downtown Clearwater and St Pete both need to be on the destination list, with the existing rail lines and heavier cars, the CSX lines can be used. This would save millions and get it done quick. Tourists could land at either airport, get on the rail and get close enough to the beaches or where ever to take a cab or trolley to their final destination.

Yes, yes, yes, if the light rail would connect to Sarasota/Manatee counties. I'd love to get up to Tampa by light rail to visit or to go to the airport. Ad yes, I'd be willing to pay. San Jose has a wonderful light rail that goes all the way up to San Fran and down as far as Gilroy.

Don't worry, Obama's gonna give us the money!

If it reduces the need for new roads, why not. The roads are not free, so we all pay, one way or the other anyway.

The SF System (MUNI is the local light rail btw, BART is the bay area's transit) is one of the best in the country, it was not done over night. We start with a light rail system running from South Pinellas into Hillsborough and slowly expand the bus coverage between it and the create more and more light rail lines. It will take decades but an effort worth the money and effort
I lived in SF, Boston, and NYC and not having to own a car was a nice option to have.

Waste of money. Waste of time. Tampa is not San Fransisco or even Atlanta. "The government that governs best, governs least", ever thought about that?
Another waste tax will drive people, businesses, and money away from Tampa. Don't be fooled by more bait / switch from new politics and old pols.

It would actually be waste of neither. It would certainly assist elderly and lower income people in getting about, it would in time decrease the polution created cars. And your comment about least government is not really applicable. Providing a service is different than imposing fees, penalties, fines, and laws. And lucky for us, the majority of polled people disagree with you. I say we need to push this forward and make it happen.

A great idea provided there would be a stop or two along the way between Clearwater and St Pete. In other words, would the rail be of service basically to those who
live either in St Pete or Clearwater bjut not those inbetween the two cities

I would hope the planners would not be that short sighted. In most larger cities the light rail works as a replacement to the bus hub system. So if the rail system had stops from So St Pete to N Tampa or further they would be serviced by east to west traveling bus routes. The principle works well in most cities across the country. Of course we have only the bus system at this point.

As time goes on other light rain routes could be added going north to south at different points in the counties. In the end three or so north to south light rails coupled with the east to west bus routes would service the city much light MUNI light rail and bus systems do in SF

Don't waste the money. We already have buses that run almost empty and cost taxpayers a fortune. We always hear how good this place or that place was, yet those same people are here. If NY, Atlanta, or SF is so wonderful, consider going back there and helping lessen the population problem here. People in my trailer park don't want to pay more for no railroad which is 100 year old technology anyway.

Dunedin, hoping that was posted in jest, honestly I do

Something tells me he lives in Downtown Dunedin not a trailer park lol, Light Rail is not 100 year old tech, it is state of the art tech and is far better than buses.

Several years ago Tampa was named "America's Next Great City" how can that be without mass transit of all kinds including light rail? Nancy Stearns

Road infrastructure in Tampa Bay seems more to accommodate the current needs, and less to plan for the future. We may have been in a holding pattern for new housing and construction, but it's starting to pick up again. That means more cars on the roads.
It's so difficult to get around when everything is so spread out by miles and miles. Light rail could help alleviate some of the congestion and make the area a little more travel-friendly for tourists and locals alike.

The net result I would like to see would be more of a pedestrian city. Tampa Bay is about as far away from that as possible. Aren't we the capital of hit and runs and deaths by being hit by cars?

I'd love to see this in our area.........but it's not feasible. If this was such a good idea, the private sector would already have the system up and running, but as it is, it's not profitable, therefore nobody has seriously pursued it. Think about it.......if this was a money maker, it would have already happened.

I will say having rail in the cities is a start........compared to simply connecting two cities like Orlando and Tampa. I laugh at the people who really thought it was a good idea to connect two cities with horrible transportation within the cities. Were the travelers expected to rent a car?? Or were they expected to ride the bus? Or perhaps one of the Pro-rail folks would be waiting to drive them around??

Although I would love this, I attempt to live in reality and actually think about things.......if this rail falls on the backs of the taxpayers, expect to foot the bill for all the expected revenue that never appears. Our area isn't populated enough to sustain this.

Take a look at Penn Central from the 70's to see how well the Govt does with rail.

We've all heard of Amtrak, right? This was the passenger service of Penn Central.
Wonder how many are aware of the BILLION$$$$ stolen from the American taxpayer to fund this money pit. Amtrak has been losing money for the past 3 decades and the Federal Govt has been subsidizing it via you and I and every other tax paying American.

Now how many of you are aware of Conrail?? This was the freight services of Penn Central. Both Amtrak and Conrail were "nationalized" rail services............but something happened with Conrail that didn't happen with Amtrak. Conrail became a private corporation and guess what??? They rebounded from the disaster that is Govt and have been running at a profit ever since. Amtrak is still running a deficit as it is funded on the backs of the American taxpayer.

The sooner all realize this, the sooner we can enact some real changes in this world.

GOVT ISN'T THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM, GOVT IS THE PROBLEM.

If they have a Stillwell Av. stop, I'm in.

This would be a collassal waste of money. Take a look at the bus system and you know we don't have a clue how to do public transportation. Hillsborough County is more than just Tampa. If the City of Tampa wants light rail, go ahead but the county should have nothing to do with it.

I am not aware of ANY self-supporting passenger rail - light or otherwise - in the US. I don't know about subways - check w/ DC, NYC & Chicago If a light rail system was built in Florida we would be committing ourselves and our children to endless taxpayer subsidies. If it was self-supporting I am sure a private enterprise would have brought forward a plan long ago.

Only old wrinkled republicans who wants to continue living in the last century, whom also have cars (not considering many people don't have the option on hopin in a car) would say, "No."

John Doe (and all, not really trying to single anyone out here ...)
I am about as progressive as they come and I still look at the debate about light rail in Pinellas and really have a hard time figuring out how anyone would pull it all together and make it work. I think a lot of the problems that we face stem from the fact that it has never existed here, so we have developed along those lines, and retrofitting it now would be a big challenge.

Where would the tracks be installed?

Would we have to re-engineer US 19 one more time to make it work?

Who would use the system? .... I did a mental inventory of all the folks I know really well and can only come up with one person that this may benefit ... a guy that commutes from Hudson to Clearwater everyday for work. All others either live close enough to work that a car is reasonable, or have jobs where the work varies in locations and rail would be very hard to negotiate.

I have a job like that and used the bus system for a couple months due to an inoperable car. Fortunately, I am close to a lot of bus connections, but still, that added about two extra hours away from home each day ... not something that I want to have to do again.

If anyone here has noticed, the bus system now has added connecting service to your home. It takes planning to use, but is a good step to help fix things in light of what we can do right now with minimal impact.

I think many of the opinions voiced are interesting albeit they are just that, opinions. I did a lot of work with the BART System in SF compiling statistics etc. I learned a great deal about the engineering involved in the MUNI and BART Systems. I found out that traffic flow for automobiles is actually considered to be classified as Chaotic Science. One way to implement a light rail system would be to do as many other cities world wide have done, take over a percentage of the existing roads. The very act would in fact force more people to take the trains in order to avoid the congestion, the congestion then decreases as light rail ridership increases. It is an amazing and awesome thing to see happen.

Taking over existing roads does not sound like a promising idea. The bottom line here is money. The government is broke, spends way more than it takes in, and the elected fools can't agree to do anything except spend more. .
Railroads were all over and the rails were torn out because nobody rode the train. How about we dig canals all over and use boats to sail around ? That is just about as practical as going back to rails which would block roads, smash into cars, and induce people to push others in front of trains at the stations. Plus the horns on trains are too loud when they blow them every 10 seconds. Only tree hugging left wing democrats will support rails because they get free stuff and part of the 47% who pays nothing anyway toward income taxes.

I was Born in Tampa, we need need need this RAIL, it will help all ages, and all people in the state of Florida, this Gov. Scott with his bight, when the Goverment passed us the money he gave it back,and Now you people are voting, why is Tampa always late and behind the ball?? Is anybody who lives here that votes ever traveled eleswhere and seen how these rails make life so easy???? We need it so much to go to Disney in a flash , it travels short and sweet? I traveled International in 2008, on a French made Rail, it was a nice experience, so fast like an airplane.
Gov. Scott Please make it happen!!!

Rails were torn out because of backward thinking fools and greedy road contractors lobbying. Ridership maxed out and began to fall because of our love affair with oil and cars also due to lack of forward thinking, also because no one advanced the tech of rail but now we have it and now we should think about using it. Wow that didn't work out so well for the average Joe in the end, all that individual driving instead of mass transit! You don't have to be a tree hugger or left wing Democrat to be open minded and look at all the options. Name callers are a dying breed but don't worry once the Alzheimer's kicks in you won't remember a thing. Light rail is NOT the end all answer but it's a start, a good start and can be a asset to all if planned properly and managed properly. Did you really say the "horns are too loud"! You really need to get out more and turn down the hearing aid and lose the hate. Hate is the main reason we are in this political mess along with greed. Time to move forward with lots of ideas, we can do this, we've done it before!

I think I am reading so many misconceptions. Light Rail is not high speed nor is it Amtrak style. Light rail are smaller more efficient inner city transit. They do not crash into cars, they do not employ the use of horns. And Ed is right, this discussion and the future has nothing to do with your political leanings it has to do with planning for the future period. Having the option of light rail coupled with a bus system would make it easier for so many of us to leave our cars at home and take an alternative mode of transportation. And with that option opens up a new world of visiting shops, meeting people and by that I do not mean doing the MacDonalds drive thru.

Read up on the Eschede train disaster, think of spending from 15 to 100 million per mile to build the train tracks, consider the low property values of building train tracks in your front yard, and think of taking a train to get groceries or visit the beach or your doctor, and it is clear this is a boondoggle designed to eat up money. Throw your money in a sinkhole and get about as much use as a clacking noisy diesel smoke belching train. I have done a survery and around 100 of my friends all say no to trains. It is just too crowded here for trains. Our cars get us there just fine thank you.

yes and those horrid train horns blowing every ten minutes. I suspect you haven't much experience with inner city transportation or you would not have an image of the train from Wild Wild West and more a picture of a modern, electric light rail vehicle. Please do some research into what they look like and their efficiency and relatively low cost.

Lol "too crowded"! That's the whole point! Please stop spreading misconceptions for the sake of your own twisted amusement. Light rail is electric, the cost will be in the billions in the near future, the cost is relative to the time. Luckily we will not rely on your highly scientific survey of your friends. And yes, people will take light rail to the doctor, work and other places. You wont, and that's okay. That is very very okay! I will and I own a car and a plumbing truck. I would much rather take light rail to a hockey game, football game or out to dinner in St Pete. I am not a tree hugger, not a liberal, just a average tax paying citizen. By the way, I have customer after customer say they want light rail and plenty of them had bumper stickers that read Romney/Ryan!

Jeff Brandes stated the facts about rails in Pinellas very well in April by reminding us "96% of the likely voters who would decide on the tax increase do not even use PSTA’s services. " He went on to remark that a 19th century answer to a 21st century problem makes no sense. A rail transit referendum will fail as it should. Just like the buses have almost no impact on traffic, a rail from St Pete to Clearwater as discussed wpould serve almost nobody and waste money. If people want to ride an electric train then go to an amusement park or visit the mall and ride around in the kids train there.

Clearwater? I want that light rail running up and down Albert St in Dunedin blowing it's horn and clacking it's track 24/7 lolololol!

Light rail is very expensive to build but if build out is very inexpensive to run but so are roads as we use to have over 50 miles of trolley that ran from 5 am to 3am and ran every 7 minutes on it major routes to an average of 15 minutes on most routes to a maximum of one hour out to the outer parks, and cost a nickel to ride but sadly it was owned by TECO and sold out to gm sub company who even thought the system ran in the black torn it out and replaced it with bus which were much more expensive to run thus the massively shorten hours and times of service as ridership is way up and service is extended a little but for a lot of service people the bus is worthless as what good is a but if you can get to work but not home.
the best lt rail routes in Tampa would be downtown to USF down town to the airport and to one to HCC dale Mabry and the stadium there.
in st petes a trolley would best done on the beach out to parking lots and then over to airport connecting it with Tampa and allow high density houses and commercial lots along which will develop as they always do over fixed lines but never over variable bus routes which seem to change at a whim

aT 75 million dollars per mile to build(PSTA estimated) and more to maintain, the system would never in 500 years be in the black, making 2 cents or more sales tax necessary to keep it running. The total number of projected riders would be so small that it becomes a fairy tale that may sound good but eats money like a paper shredder. It will not happen if voters are allowed to vote. Actually a Disney type monorail would avoid traffic congestion and be smooth, quiet, and with links to beaches,airports, and malls, attract riders. Makes more sense than 100 years old rail technology..

We need better public transportation. Trains are a way of life in Europe and the are awesome. Every elected official should have to go to Europe or China and ride the trains. It's an awesome way to travel. For the "old, retired republicans", deal with it or hurry up and die! We need to realize it's 2013 and not horse & buggy days.

I lived in Boston and NYC all of my life. I never had to own a car and loved that factor. I dont know the economics of it all, but surely know the personal economics of it. I paid $100 a month for a pass that took me all over the city and 50 mile circumference. I never had to pay insurance and gas prices as well as maintenance on a car. I never got a parking ticket, had a safe driving record (hee hee) and never had to deal with parking. I got exercise, too! Now after living here, I drive everywhere. I dont even like to drive because there are a lot of wreckless and older people driving that should not- no offense, I've grown in age, too. But, think that more reliable transportation would be quite helpful. I have to pay $200 a month for car insurance because someone else got in an accident with my car. And because of that no matter where I go, my rates are high. My insurance company never investigated the accident, just paid off the people who caused it. Its crazy and I wish I could sit on a bus, subway, read a book, meet others doing the same, have a little peace and quiet before work instead of the stress of traffic. Its like Greyhound. I would surely love to leave the driving to someone else!

if the totaly ran well intro the night it would also lower DWI

We need more connections in between north tampa and south tampa at the very least. It would benefit tourism and help USF be better connected to the rest of the city. WMNF had a fantastic segment yesterday on this topic, and there was someone talking about how the cost would actually be quite small compared to some funds that get allocated for road improvements around here. I am a transplant, and only have been here a few years, but it is the very worst aspect of Tampa, in my opinion. I own a car, live in the south and work in north, and if I could take efficient public transport that would not take over an hour, I would. We have seen the opinion of Tampa in the eyes of the US from the RNC - why can't we take steps to improve it? We need to be better at all sorts of transportation - bikes, pedestrians, buses... A girl got hit by a car near USF, and you know what they told us - look both ways before you cross the street! No warnings to the righteous people in the cars, their huge trucks, and SUVs. It's a huge problem.

Tampa to be honest isn't the most livable city, but it does have it's good points. I plan on moving as soon as I find somewhere else to live, I never liked Tampa St.Pete. I do live around the USF area, and we are close to a lot, but it's way too congested and poorly laid out, I don't want to drive all the way up to Wesley Chapel or New Tampa to go shopping. We used to have some nice stores on Fowler, but they all moved out to New Tampa. Most of Tampa is run down and I'm not crazy about moving out to the burbs either. I don't think any connection from central to North Tampa would improve anything except like what Jill said about going downtown, etc.

A high speed monorail system running above everything from the airport as the possible main hub to stations north an south on 19 ,St Pete,The beaches ,Downtown/NorthTampa USF area,Orlando areas ,Disney ,South to Ft Lauderdale Ft Myers, Miami.Key West wherever it would make it convenient for tourists and the locals. It could all be built on the I-75/I-95/Hwy19 corridors above the highway..So minimal land purchases would save money..This would also create jobs at each station in the form of taxis, limos, buses as well as vendors onsite..If you all remember our wonderful governor Rick Scott turned down 2.4 Billion almost 2 years ago that could have had us well on our way with high speed monorail system that could have run entirely on electricity creating no pollution...but he was too busy counting all his millions as a drug pusher for big pharmacy thats killing people everyday...

Here is what the Germans have: http://youtu.be/aCEeH12lw7w

The technology is there Germany ,Japan,China all have it but yet we persist on building more an more lanes to our existing highways only to be filled up with more gas guzzling vehicles going 2-5 mph at rush hour and all the fuel consumption / pollution that goes with all that. How retarded is that?..I swear we have the greediest/dumbest heads in the sand politicians who have nor do they want any vision for the future unless its involves money going into their pockets from special interest blocking progress once again.

do any of these 'wonderful' rail systems run without government (read TAXPAYER) subsidies? What would the fares be it they were ENTIRELY rider supported? How would they be paid for (Private funds or Government/taxpayer funds) ? How many people &/or Businesses would be forced to move as the property was taken by eminent domain for the tracks, stations & parking lots? (Take a look at where I-275 is in Tampa/Hillsborough) What will the traffic look like for the YEARS it will take to get the systems built (take a look at US-19 & Gulf-to-Bay or I-275 & I-4)

@Dan, do any of our wonderful roads or highways run with out government subsidies? Only a few toll roads. So your point is exactly?

we pay on average 770 dollar a year on our roads between gas tax local and state tax and federal taxes and even toll roads gets most of it money still from subsidies. In fact we need to add over 50 cents a gallon to the current gas taxes to pay for the cost of roads in the USA, and that would only go up as more fuel efficient cars and electric come on the road
Also To compare, public transportation we spend about 34-50 dollar per person depending on the city.

Why does anyone need rail when there are no jobs to go to? And if one does not have a job,there is no money to be spent so it seems like a waste. Maybe in 4 years after Obama is gone and the Republicans wipe out regulations and lower taxes, those jobs will return and then maybe those trains would be put to good use.

Oh my dear poor misinformed Ms O'Donnell.

I realize that it pains you to be reminded - as much as you try to ignore the truth - that our economy, which went into the crapper because of (1) the unfunded wars + (2) unjustified tax cuts + (3) unsound regulatory cuts (which led to the financial meltdown) all the "contribution" of the Bush Administration, plus (4) the similar unsound regulatory cuts of the Clinton Administration, is finally on the way to healing and recovery.

Your idea that there is a different kind of "remedy" if only the radical right wing of the GOP was to "wipe out regulations and lower taxes" would be like expecting leukemia to be stopped if only the patient would stand on the rooftop and throw away his/her medications and stop the chemotherapy.

The jobs are coming back, but slowly, after our six year old recession, the worst economic tragedy since the Great Depression; that kind of multifaceted economic problem could never be quickly cured, but it is, thankfully, well on its way to recovery.

well put Clinton’s fair housing act was far and stopped industry red lining in poor area making it imposable to get a loan within however that law was twisted under bush who eliminated income verification and reduced down payment to almost zero which was an insane policy but made loan company’s involved rich and created the Housing bubble which might of been sustained but the country was as also attacked by corporations such as Wal-Mart who actively promoted outsourcing of it supplier’s and corporate raiding company’s like bane capital who raided company’s in the black and drove them into bankruptcy while taking millions from them. What these short term thinkers did not realize is ever think is when a lot of people lose their jobs at the same time it hurts the economy and make it much harder to find work which leads to mass foreclosure which is what happened/ and it cause the rich income to rise at a 40 Degree angle up while the rest are running a degrading flat line for the past 10 years

I rode the buses in Holiday and NPR, I have never been on a bus in Florida that had more than 15/20 people at a time and it was usually under 10. The money it would cost to maintain the rail system would be much higher than the actual money brought in.

Not sure how this degraded into talking head talking points but the crux was supposed to be light rail for Tampa Bay. Clinton, Bush and Obama's destruction of our economy is something than can be erased if we start working on solutions locally. Once such solution is a light rail. It will employ people to build it, and support services to those building it, then it will create new business's that will open to support the users of the service. Those nay sayers harping on that people will not use it should ready about many other cities world wide in which it has been more recently installed and it's dramatic results. We are paying a fortune for roads and those people who drive on them which is becoming less and less safe for people walking, riding bikes, etc. I say it is high time to begin the light rail process now.

@Barb, I think you are missing the point entirely, how are roads paid for? Tax dollars! So whats the difference in cost? The benefits would be to as time goes on to begin to limit the cars by toll, or narrowing of roads and forcing people to ride on light rail and cleaning our air, etc. The cost of road maintenance far exceeds the cost to maintain a light rail.

Here's one difference; everyone uses the roads and a very small percentage would use light rail here.. Also, historically they always go way over budget (look up the San Jose line in California) and guess who gets stuck with that bill? This area is too spread out they could never build enough stations so that a majority of the people could easily access it. Also, we don't all work in place like downtown for example. If you want to put people back to work why not start updating our current infrastructure that is crumbling beneath us like roads, bridges, drainage, etc... Light Rail is a luxury and in a perfect world I'm all for it but not while we have some many more important needs.

I am amazed at the myriad of arguments against the light rail. I have heard that it would not generate enough revenue to sustain itself, neither do roads but it in the first 3 years not only would it generate jobs for those directly working on the construction but also for small businesses servicing the rail system. In addition, small businesses pop up to service the new and ever increasing ridership. A PR campaign would be needed to increase ridership as it has been done in DC and Jacksonville. And making sure the train routes service areas in high demand for occasions is all the better, for example downtown St Pete free for fireworks, The Trop, the Tampa cruise port, etc. I drive a brand new car, would I take a light rain for 2.00 to the Trop instead of driving and paying for parking, of course I would. Would I take a light rail to watch the fireworks when it is free, anyone would. I think most of the arguments against the rail system are very short sighted. This is a win win for the entire Bay area and we should aggressively pursue this, I think we will all be losers in the end if we fail to do so. And by the way go ahead and call me a tree hugging liberal (which I seen nothing wrong with) as you could not be more wrong.

I wonder how many miles of light rail could be built if we decided not to install another billion dollar flyover on US 19...

If Florida is going to attract more big business and make it's economy about more than tourism it is going to have to step up, improve education, public transportation and actually show some innovation. Corporate welfare only goes so far and quality people/businesses won't want to come here if the lifestyle if 50 years behind.

Diane Carlstrom - How much are you willing to step up to pay for those things? What should we increase sales taxes or property taxes or both? The big cities have good public transportation yet businesses are leaving there in droves (see California) due to the high taxes that are a cost of living and doing business there. The reason we have so many retired people from up North living here and business that continue to move here and other sunbelt states is because of the low taxes and a fairly educated work force. If you want NYC or California type amenities, prices and taxes i'm sure you can find a nice place there for 4 times what your house cost here.

Everyone wants to ride the train, but no one wants to buy a ticket. Just look at what the TECO trolley has to contend with! I've used BART, the DC Metro and public transport in Germany and Austria and here's where we differ. In densely populated cities like DC, Boston, NYC, Vienna, Frankfurt, Berlin...it works. In Charlotte, it's a novelty - as it would be here. It's crowded (read used) for morning and afternoon commutes, but deserted the rest of the day. Just look at the comments above: "I'd take the train if it stopped in front of my house and stopped at Publix". We can't replace bus routes with serpentine train lines. One of the main reasons rail has failed here is because of sprawl. We'd rather have more traffic lanes - and retain our freedom from timetables - than plan our day around a bus/train schedule. Currently, the majority of people riding the bus are people who HAVE TO ride the bus. I know, I know, there are a fistful of commuters on here, but the majority of those using public transport use it because they have to, not because they want to. And the planning commissions eyeballing the train projects are aware of this. Light Rail is the latest city-planner jewel in the cap. We say that if Tampa wants to sit at the big people's table, we HAVE TO HAVE light rail, 'cause all the other cities have one. Public transport was never meant to be self sufficient or show a profit, and light rail - just like the bus system - will always be subsidized by tax dollars.

I think the point I have been trying to make and is proven over and over in small towns and major cities all over the world is simple. Trains create a life of their own. People pontificate over low ridership etc, but in reality as the train is completed things begin to grow, businesses open, residential areas grow, etc. Even my home town in Middleboro MA got a train to Boston and within a year the real estate market upticked, people could commute from Middleboro to Bridgewater College to Boston etc. Business's opened around the routes and now condos and housing developments.

You make a good point Mike. Maybe I don't trust city council and all those speial interests who have thier hands in the cookie jar. I know I'll never find the perfect place, but I really don't like Tampa much, and I'm from Detroit, and of course the inside of a septic tank is better than that place. :) I just feel Tampa has to work on a few other priority's first, and sure transportation is one of them. As mentioned, I wasn't crazy about Tampa 20 years ago, I'm sure I won't be too thrilled when it's 5 times the size and millions of people and plenty of crappy low paying jobs to go around.