HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The Hillsborough Transportation Planning Board is preparing to vote on some big changes.
These changes aim to increase safety and ensure reliable transportation is available for people in the county.
As Hillsborough County continues to grow, with more people moving here every day. The county is working to expand public transportation to keep up with demand.
Next week the TPO Board will consider making an amendment to the transportation improvement program to include two new projects.
The TPO Board will vote on this amendment next week. If they vote yes, this means they would reallocate 750 thousand dollars to add two new projects into the program.
Part of that money would go to extend the street car system in Tampa.
Justin Willits with the Hillsborough Transit Authority said they are seeing record ridership on the street cars.
Justin Willits said, “The development downtown is really bringing people closer to transit.”
Part of the extension will include rebuilding several streetcars to bring them up to modern-day standards.
Brian Allan is the Director of streetcar operations. He said, “In that process, they'll receive new air compressors and some updated safety systems that weren't available when cars were built in 2011.”
The funding will also be used to resurface part of Fowler Avenue. Willits said that will set up HART to implement a bus rapid transit service between downtown Tampa and USF.
“It would be connecting two of the biggest job centers in the Tampa Bay region,” Willits said.
He explained that it would be similar to the gunrunner in St. Pete. The bus would travel in a dedicated lane for parts of the commute to move through traffic quickly.
Willits said the goal is to expand public transportation, and this will all be up for discussion during next week's TPO board meeting.
