A 52-mile passenger rail route between Wesley Chapel, Tampa and St. Petersburg would draw the highest ridership among five potential light rail lines under study by the Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority.
A 25.4 mile rail route between from Carrollwood to Westshore, downtown Tampa and Brandon ranked second in potential ridership, followed by Clearwater-Carillon-Tampa, Clearwater-North Pinellas-USF and Clearwater-St. Petersburg rail lines.
TBARTA released a draft report for discussion today that adds detail to the seven-county initiative for a combination of rail and bus transit routes, with the first service expected by 2035 provided local counties can generate funding to draw matching funds.
For example, the Wesley Chapel-Tampa-St. Petersburg rail route could cost between $2.8 billion and $5.7 billion for construction and equipment with annual operating and maintenance costs of $39.1 million, the TBARTA report created for the Florida Department of Transportation showed. It would draw between 14,950 and 25,199 daily boardings.
Officials emphasized the routes and costs were projections with a wide degree of variance developed so TBARTA members could begin to assign priorities for planning purposes.
Details of where stations would be located on each route and what technology for rail routes could be determined within two years, said Cassandra Ecker, transportation planning group manager for Jacobs Engineering's Tampa office, which provides technical assistance for TBARTA.