HART Plans Expanded Bus Service For New Tampa In Coming Years

By Matt Wiley

As the New Tampa area continues to grow and traffic becomes more dense, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (aka HART) is considering improvements to public transportation for our area over the next few years.

Since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2014, which began in October 2013, ridership for New Tampa’s lone HART Park & Ride route (51X, which picks up and drops off in the Lowe’s parking lot off Bruce B. Downs [BBD] Blvd. in Tampa Palms), already has surpassed nearly 5,500 passenger trips, with nearly 1,400 in January alone. Ridership for the Tampa Bay area totaled more than 14.6 million passenger trips last year; ridership in New Tampa totaled more than 17,000. In 2006, the first year of service in the New Tampa area, ridership was about 9,700. At the time, the area had two routes, which mirrored each other. The second, which was called 52LX, was scrapped in November of 2007, due to poor ridership. The 51X route not only serves New Tampa residents, but also has two stops that benefit those commuting from Wesley Chapel, as well.

Currently, the 51X route begins in the morning at a Park-n-Ride stop at Victorious Life Church on Old Pasco Rd., before heading south on S.R. 54 to S.R. 56 and cutting east along County Line Rd., where it picks up at CrossRoads Community United Methodist Church. It then continues on to BBD and heads south, making a stop at Lowe’s in Tampa Palms. The bus then takes I-75 south to I-4, where it stays until it turns into I-275 and heads downtown to make three drop-offs. In the evenings, the bus makes four pick-ups downtown and heads north on I-275 to Bearss Ave. and then drops off at the three Park-n-Ride stops.

According to HART’s 10-year Transit Development Plan (TDP), which it must update each year, New Tampa has much to look forward to, including a future route that will connect our area to Macdill Air Force Base (AFB) in south Tampa. However, in the meantime, HART also has some other routes it hopes to implement in the near future that will better connect New Tampa with other parts of Hillsborough County and offer more alternatives to having to drive BBD every day. The TDP projects that New Tampa ridership could climb to nearly 600,000 by 2020.

“We know that the need is there,” says HART spokesperson Sandra Morrison. “The residents have expressed a need for (more) service in the New Tampa area and we are doing what we can to try to help.”

Morrison explains that additional routes for the area are part of an overall plan to increase services to Macdill AFB from other HART service areas.

“Macdill is one of the primary employers in Tampa, with an employment base spreading beyond its traditional housing sites (closer to the base), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) supports transit services by purchasing transit passes for DoD employees,” Morrison says.

HART’s TDP consists of two plans: the “Status Quo” and the “Vision” plans, the former being the more realistic and current plan, while the “Vision” plan is what HART hopes to put into motion when funding were to become available, which comes from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

Every five years, HART must update FDOT about its TDP to remain eligible for funding grants, Morrison explains. Most of the New Tampa routes still are in the “Vision” plan, but could become part of the “Status Quo,” if additional funding becomes available.

Beginning in fiscal year 2016, HART hopes to begin a new “Flex Service” for New Tampa, which will consist of two, smaller vehicles that make shorter trips, as opposed to the large HART buses, which travel long routes with many stops. Flex service vans can pick riders up in their neighborhoods if a reservation is made ahead of time. Riders also can board and exit the bus at regular stops, as well.

The TDP also lists the study of a new “MetroRapid” service for the New Tampa area, beginning in fiscal year 2017, which would be a comparable service to the current MetroRapid North-South route that connects Telecom Park on E. Fletcher Ave. with downtown Tampa. MetroRapid routes feature fewer stops and contain sensors that can lengthen green lights and shorten red lights along the route, reducing bus travel time.

During fiscal year 2018, HART hopes to implement an additional “Express” service that will connect New Tampa to the Westshore District with two additional buses. Express routes allow HART buses to travel on the interstate, much like the 51X route that currently runs in our area. Fiscal year 2020 could see the construction of new MetroRapid stops and the actual beginning of the service, which is estimated to cost about $15.5-million and to add eight new buses.

“These new routes all depend on funding,” Morrison says. “The MetroRapid routes would most likely be along BBD, but the number of stops has not yet been determined.”

For more information about HART, or to check out the 10-year TDP, please visit GoHART.org.