Light Rail Jacksonville

Where We Have Been

AND

Where We Can Go From Here

JAX TRAX

The Next Generation

A tour of models of what our city could look like with some creative thinkers at the helm...

Looking East-Northeast from the roof of the Times Union Center down Water Street, The Omni is on the left and the landing down the street to the right. Cool? Just add streetcar!

A concept model for those prisoners of the Matthews and Hart bridges, just cross the bridge and park at A. Phillip Randolph and the Arlington Expressway. The Phillip Randolph Multi-Modal Center could sit on the west end of the fairgrounds and feature connections to Rail, Streetcar, Bus and Skyway. This scene looks North-Northeast from Duval Street toward the expressway.

A birds eye view of the A. Phillip Randolph Multi-Modal Center, right in the heart of the Stadium, Arena, Ball Park and Fairgrounds district. This scene looks due North from about Bay Street.

Another view of a model Randolph Multi-Modal Transit Center, this time from the East side at the Fairgrounds looking West toward Downtown with Beaver Street and the Streetcar Line from town visible turning into the heart of the building under the Skyway.

Once upon a time, somewhere in the not-so-distant future, some New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, columnist will write the final insignificant "put down" of what they mistakenly view as Florida's 5TH City.

We will respond: "I fear all you have done is awaken a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve!"

Make no mistake the giant is stiring, streetcars, skyways, commuter rail, brt and high speed water craft are all on the drawing boards and within their respective JTA-COJ-FTA studies. When these projects come out of study and burst onto the landscape, the whole world will see Jacksonville for what it really is, NUMBER ONE in Florida.

So with boosterism aside, let's look into the model closet for a few more sneak concepts and previews.

This is for real, the image of the new Brooklyn Park Station and extension of the Skyway. The new route will head Southwest from Central Station and take the first step toward an appoach of 5-Points and the Insurance and Banking Centers along Riverside Blvd., and yes that was considered in the Riverside widening project and JTA wisely has the right-of-way for the monorail already in place.

Here we see a model of the Skyway heading south from the new Brooklyn Station through the financial and insurance district of upper Riverside. Just before the Interstate 95, we see it jogging west to Annie Lytle School Transit Center near 5-Points. 

Another idea that is extremely popular with the citizens but hasn't quite caught the City's eye, is the old abandoned Public School Number 4, also known as Annie Lytle. "Annie" is inches from the freeway and a short walk under the viaducts and across one of the citys prettiest parks into the heart of the historic 5-Points shopping area. For outsiders, 5-Points is Jacksonville's rapidly growing urban culture center. The ideas to save the massive old school are myriad, but the one that has stuck is this concept of bringing in bus-streetcar-skyway and making this not only a multi-modal station but a completely unique TOD mall.

Views of the Annie Models from the front on the left and from the rear on the right, showing the transit end of the proposed mall-rescue of one of the cities most historic buildings.

Two more views of Annie, on the right looking Southeast from the Freeway. The second view is a model of the transit layout from the air.

Never to be left out, what about San Marco at Atlantic Blvd? Isn't this the hub of the highly populated South Side of the city? Currently the Skyway stops dead not a mile from the heart of the vibrant San Marco business center. Outsiders might consider San Marco something of a mini-Coral Gables. Certainly the atmosphere is there, and so are the shops, restaurants and shoppers. As the City becomes more urban this is rapidly becoming THE address to have in urban Jacksonville. In the void of our pseudo-transit/highway agency's lack of planning, once again the citizens have picked up the napkin and are already hard at work trying to bring the Skyway-Commuter Rail and Buses to San Marco. Here are some of the models and sketches:

Typical "napkin art" over dinner at Hola's Restaurant near 1St and Main in Jacksonville, San Marco is all anyone wanted to talk about.

This is what we think San Marco Station AT Atlantic could be. Note the Skyway has crossed over to the West side of the Florida East Coast Railroad doing away with 100 years of frustration at those crossings. Bus loading is to the right (west) of the Station, and rail service is easy to see. The old Landon High School track and park is the green space in the bottom right corner of the scene.