Passengers trickling in and out of First Coast Flyer buses at the Park-n-Ride station on Philips Highway served as the backdrop for a city celebration, welcoming a new rapid bus line Monday.
The “Blue Line,” which runs from the Avenues Mall to downtown, is the second to be completed in an ambitious, 57-mile project connecting all parts of Jacksonville with short-route, high-frequency buses.
City leaders also welcoming to town Federal Transit Administration administrator Carolyn Flowers, whose department is responsible for the lion’s share of Flyer funds.
“FTA is an investor in the project. The project was $23.9 million and 80 percent of the funding came from the federal government,” she said.
The remaining funds came from city and state coffers. When it’s all done, four rapid transit bus lines will converge on a new transportation hub planned for downtown. It’s set to be the largest rapid transit bus system in the Southeast.
But will the new Federal Transportation Secretary keep the momentum going? Flowers is optimistic about
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice — Elaine Chao.
“She was a deputy at the Department of Transportation before, so I think she comes in with good knowledge about transportation,” she said. “I would hope that when the new administration is talking about infrastructure that they remember that transit and rail should be part of that whole direction for the future.”
Chao, described as a moderate by the New York Times, was also labor secretary during the Bush administration and is the wife of Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.
Reporter Ryan Benk can be reached at rbenk@wjct.org, at (904) 358 6319 or on Twitter @RyanMichaelBenk.
