Hillsborough revisting light rail

Here we go again.  Mark Sharpe is leading efforts to revive the ghost of rail past.

Sharpe is calling for a series of transportation "summits" between commissioners and representatives of the county's three cities, along with civic groups, to develop a 30-year priority list of road and transit work. He said his hope is to develop something by November that can be taken to voters a year later, paralleling the planned Pinellas vote.

We had that summit.   In 2010.  Sharpe is not listening.

Sharpe said his hope now is that the group will consider including a small, limited-use rail line, perhaps linking the airport to the West Shore business district. That would keep costs from swallowing a large chunk of any new tax dollars and allow rail to prove itself.

"This gets us moving forward," Sharpe said. "Then we can have another conversation in the future about where we go from there."

 We had that conversation.  In 2010.  Sharpe is not listening.

Once again, the media just regurgitates talking points from the advocates, those with something to win. To extract some taxes from us.

"I'm excited someone is putting it forward to make it a formal proposal," said Kevin Thurman, executive director of Connect Tampa Bay, a recently formed group pushing for a regional approach to transportation planning that does not rely solely on roads. 

Who is Kevin Thurman?  He's all over the place on these rail and transportation issues.  All of sudden like.  Where is he getting his money and time to do all this?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Fighting the same battle.