Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Streetcar may have to find new operator

Some on HARTline's board prefer someone else run the streetcar that carries few city and county residents.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published January 16, 2006

TAMPA - In the 20 minutes it takes the streetcar to rattle along 2.4-miles of track between Ybor City and the Channel District, John and Corita Belyea and another couple are the only passengers to hop aboard.

"More people would ride this if it went anywhere," Corita Belyea said. "It would be nice if it went farther, like to the downtown."

It has been local sport to point out the streetcar system's shortcomings since its 2002 debut. Though they like the system, the Belyeas underscore a chief complaint: A trip on one of Tampa's streetcars can be a lonely ride.

It could get lonelier.

Last week, the system's operator, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, raised doubts about whether it would continue running the system. The board now has several members, including County Commissioners Brian Blair and Ronda Storms, who say the streetcar diverts resources from the agency's mission of providing bus service.

The HARTline board voted Monday to have the nonprofit organization responsible for operating the system, Tampa Historic Streetcar Inc., seek bids for the job rather than have HARTline automatically continue as the contractor.

Board members concluded that HARTline would submit a bid, so it could do the job again if selected.

Still, the vote disappointed Tampa Historic Streetcar president Michael English, who sent a letter asking that HARTline simply renew the contract, which expires in September.

"Frankly, we've been happy with HARTline," English said. "But if the HARTline board doesn't want us, we'll look at alternatives."

While it's far from a given that HARTline wants to abandon the streetcar, last week's meeting made clear that at least some of its board members wouldn't mind making it an orphan.

"I don't want anything to do with it," longtime critic Storms said.

"They should mothball it," Blair said. "The streetcar has given us a huge black eye."

"Shut the thing down," said board member David Storck, a Wal-Mart assistant manager appointed to the HARTline board by commissioners in October.

But other board members said it's unlikely HARTline would shut it down. To do so would require the repayment of millions in federal grants used to buy and build the $53-million system.

"I'm not going to be the one to shut it down," said chair Ricardo Roig, a lawyer appointed to the board by the city last year. "When you go to a town and you see the tracks and it's shut down and there's weeds on it, it looks like crap. So what are you going to do? Shut it down. That's silly."

But who would run it, if not HARTline, isn't clear. Private companies could be interested, but generally public transit agencies operate rail lines because they are money-losers. Passenger fares cover an average of only 27 percent of rail revenue, according to the American Public Transportation Association in Washington, D.C.

That bottom line may help explain why the association could find only one light rail system in the country operated by a private entity. The Southern New Jersey Rail Group, which includes the Bechtel Group, operates a line along the Delaware River.

English said Tampa could take it over. While HARTline owns the system's 10 streetcars, it is the city that owns the tracks.

Yet Bonnie Wise, Tampa's finance director, said no one at the city has discussed operating it.

HARTline charges Tampa Historic Streetcar about $108 per vehicle hour, which added up to almost $1.6-million in operation expenses last year.

Rich Clarendon, HARTline's general manager of administration, told board members last week that these costs are a wash. HARTline neither makes money nor loses money operating the streetcar, he said, because it's reimbursed by Tampa Historic Streetcar.

Much of that reimbursement comes from the organization's endowment, which is in dispute.

But the streetcar has become a political liability for HARTline. It recently settled a lawsuit with former employee John Dausman, who sued after he was fired in 2003, claiming he was let go for exposing mismanagement with the streetcar. HARTline paid $170,000.

Blair said it's better to wait six or seven years for downtown to develop before operating a system that carries few city and county residents. While ridership climbed 2 percent to 434,498 passengers in 2005, about two-thirds are tourists.

He said he's worried that Tampa Historic Streetcar is dipping too much into what was once a more than $5-million endowment to operate the system. Now it's down to about $4.5-million, and dropping fast, he said.

"When that's gone, what are they going to do?" Blair asked.

English said that at its current pace, the endowment would be depleted in 10 to 15 years, which he said is troubling.

"(Blair) isn't revealing anything that people are hiding," English said. "We had always hoped we would only use the interest, and we have gone past that, and we are concerned. But we are being as aggressive ... in finding other funding sources."

The streetcar has spurred development in the Channel District and is popular with tourists, English said. With condo projects getting built around the tracks, now would be an inopportune time to pull out, he said.

"The arguments you hear that it's just for tourists, well, that's all smoke and mirrors to besmirch a good idea," English said. "We chose that line because the only ridership available then in the urban center was tourists.

"That's changing. We're getting 12,000 new residents in the next few years, with 10,000 workers for the Channel District. You're going to need something to move them."

--Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3402 or mvansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 16, 2006, 00:40:11]