CSX is willing to sell a 2-mile link that would end near Tropicana Field, about a mile from the heart of St. Petersburg.
By JON WILSON
Published May 19, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - The Pinellas Trail, a 34-mile hiking-and-biking stretch that rides an old rail bed from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg, is closer to stretching downtown.
CSX railroad is willing to part with the remainder of its corridor, said Joe Kubicki, the city's transportation planning director.
The last stretch extends about 2 miles from 34th Street S near Gibbs High School to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street S near Tropicana Field.
It's the lightly used remnant of an old line that once was a major transportation artery for passengers and freight.
"That doesn't mean we get it for free. We have to purchase it," Kubicki said. The cost is estimated at $4.75-million, which includes buying the right of way but not converting it for trail users.
The good news, he said, is that the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit group that buys property for quality-of-life purposes, has agreed to purchase the corridor and hold it until the city finds money to buy it back.
"Our job is, first of all, to make sure the corridor is kept together, then, No. 2, work with the Legislature, grants or whatever funding sources may exist to find funds to purchase it," Kubicki said.
He said Pinellas County government is taking the lead in asking the federal government to keep the corridor intact. That's part of the formal process required.
The railroad serves only two customers in the city's Dome Industrial area, Kubicki said.
Extending the trail through there to near Tropicana would leave about a mile left to link the trail to the downtown waterfront. Plans to do that are under way, but how the last link would be designed still is not known, Kubicki said.
The first stretch of the Pinellas Trail opened in 1990. County officials estimate that it serves 90,000 walkers, bicyclists, runners and in-line skaters each month.
