The streetcar rumbling through the Channel District past the family fun of The Florida Aquarium and Tampa Bay History Center. Residents of the nearby condos and visitors enjoying frou-frou drinks in the courtyard of Channelside Bay Plaza, the faint sound of the "clang" from the streetcar bell in the distance. The streetcar marching on to The Tampa Bay Times Forum and Hattricks which are both overflowing with Lightning bolts for game night.
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| Notice the streetcar in the "P" in Tampa! |
Since returning to the streets of Tampa in 2002, the TECO Line Streetcar has provided an iconic backdrop to a number of media outlets including international (Daily Mirror), national (Super Bowl XLIII broadcasts, NEW ERA commercial featuring Tampa Bay Ray Evan Longoria, Southern Living, Travel and Leisure Magazine, etc.) and local (broadcast news morning shows, local magazines).
Needless to say, the streetcar craves the limelight!
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| We're kicking off "Fan Photo Fridays"! |
Every Friday morning we'll choose a photo to be featured as our cover photo on the TECO Line Streetcar Facebook page and the photographer will receive a shout out! Each winning photo will then be placed in a monthly raffle for a prize.
Things to know about Fan Photo Fridays:
- Vertical photos work best with the cover photos
- Cover photos are 851 pixels wide x 315 pixels tall
- Only photos with the streetcar (somewhere) in it will be included
- Both smartphone and traditional camera photos will be accepted, so FILTER away!
- Prizes are subject to change
- Only one entry per person, per week
- By submitting your photo, you grant HART permission to use your photo for all purposes, including marketing and promotion. You also confirm that you have all rights necessary to grant this permission, including from all subjects in the photo and the person who took the photo.
Hi :
ReplyDeleteSorry I was out of the office when TBARTA phoned with their Conference call .
TECO is a wonderful start to a first-rate transit system ... and apparently one that no one wants to discuss. We should have found some way of funding a meaningful extension into downtown Tampa and beyond, so that the trolley can be used as a true transit system.
If people object to the expense and clutter of overhead wires reuired by a true trolley system, and management objects to the fragility and maintenance of true trolley pickup, I wonder whether they have considered HYDROLLEY . The recent Hydrail 2013 conference in Canada featured presentations on that very topic . The concept encompasses streetcars powered by ecologically clean and inexpensive fuel cells providing cheap electric power to drive quiet, responsive electric motors, and so avoids the clutter, complexity, maintenance, high initial construction cost of overhead wires and other issues of overhead trolley wires .
Most of the advantages of trolleys (true trolleys, not the fake rubber-tired bus systems that have all the disadvantages of buses with all the charm of a Victoran London slum . I had hoped that we would have all been inspired by the leadership of the previous administrations who backed a real trolley transit system, of which we have merely an archaeological trace, operating under a tangle of bureaucratic management that --- after a childhood in Palma Ceia and the last ten years down south of Tampa --- I have not yet begun to untangle.
.... just a sleepy southern town ? If you keep it up, that's what you'll have. Watch HGTV, the housing channel with a sharp take on people's housing requirements and choices : One of the first questions asked by executives, technocrats, and creative people from all over the world is "Where are the transit lines? How do I get from the house this realtor is trying to sell me to the office where I was just offered a great position ? I'd love to accept the generous salary and live down here, but I do NOT love the prospective commute by automobile "
Please wake up, Tampa ; I hope it's not too late ! To get mildly political, have you all fallen for the nonsense economics that Funding sensible government spending is a financial drain on future generations ? My older brother wound up gladly gladly paying a ton of taxes on the professional income he earned because of the GI Bill that funded his college and professional education .