By Matt Wiley
Although it’s not always obvious, public opinion sometimes can have a strong effect on shaping policy. In the case of a proposed change to New Tampa’s lone bus route — Route 51X — public comments apparently made all of the difference.
After several public meetings in the summer and fall of 2014, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) has decided against changing the express bus route service that takes riders from New Tampa and Wesley Chapel to downtown Tampa and back in the mornings and evenings during the work week.
HART spokesperson Sandra Morrison says that the only change that will be made to the bus route will be the future closure of the Park & Ride stops for Wesley Chapel riders at Victorious Life Church (located on Old Pasco Rd. behind The Grove shopping plaza) and the former Crossroads Community Church (now the Tampa Korean United Methodist Church, located on County Line Rd.).
However, those stops will not close until a planned future Park & Ride stop is completed at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., which also will serve as a stop for Pasco County Public Transportation (PCPT). Mike Carroll, PCPT director, says that details about the stop are still being finalized and reviewed and declined to comment further.
In addition, HART also is planning to expand to add local service from the Shops at Wiregrass mall off S.R. 56 south to the University Area Transit Center, located across BBD from the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus, south of the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital, although those possible stop locations have not yet been released. That route would require two additional buses and 3-4 more drivers.
“That local service is targeted for either July or November of 2015,” Morrison explains. “This will all depend on having vehicles and personnel in time for the planned service changes.”
Morrison says that comments received during several public meetings last year at the New Tampa Regional Library (located on Cross Creek Blvd.) had a lot to do with the decision not to change the route. At the time, HART had proposed three different changes to Route 51X.
The most popular of the three proposals to change the route involved adding additional stops along BBD in the mornings and afternoons in between the Park & Ride stops, before the bus would hop onto I-75 south to I-4 and downtown Tampa. While many said that this change would be the most acceptable if any change was made, several current riders argued that the proposed additional stops would add more time to the route and make it considerably more difficult to make it to work on time. With this option, local service along BBD would have been added, as well, in between the express routes in the morning and afternoon.
The other two options completely eliminated the express service to downtown altogether, but added two different versions of local service for the New Tampa area.
For more info about HART Route 51X, please visit GoHart.org.
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