JTA wants your thoughts about commuter rail stations By Dan Scanlan Published on August 7, 2023 at 11:40 am A commuter rail line line linking Jacksonville and St. Augustine could be years away, but the next steps in the planning will come this week.
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority envisions a 38.4-mile First Coast Commuter Rail line that can carry commuters and also people seeking tourism, concerts, shopping or dinner.
Workshops this week will help JTA shape what seven potential train stations and their surroundings could look like.
• The first workshop will be 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the JTA’s Regional Transportation Center at 100 LaVilla Station, opposite the Prime Osborn Convention Center. • The other will be from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Both workshops will start with presentations about the potential station sites in each community — four in St. Johns County and three in Jacksonville. The presentations will focus on what is there now and potential transit-oriented development to increase the viability of those communities, said Katrina Powell, JTA economic development director. “Typically within a transit oriented development, you include all that. You have your mix of commercial, residential, office and entertainment that is centered around or near a transit station,” Powell said. “It is dense; it is walkable. With it being a mixed-use development, you are creating a ridership for commuter rail by the people who live around it. And it is also promoting growth for your commercial and your entertainment around the station. It attracts people, and it adds to a vibrant, connected community.” Why a commuter rail line? Drivers who go from Downtown Jacksonville to historic St. Augustine join a long line of everyday traffic taking that 45-minute to hourlong drive along Interstate 95 or U.S. 1, traffic studies show. JTA’s alternative is a 48-minute ride on the First Coast Commuter
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